


Changing Tides

by February_Eight



Series: Changing Tides [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Hemospectrum, M/M, Multi, Power Swap, Rape, Rape/Non-con References, Sexual Slavery, Trolls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2013-02-27
Packaged: 2017-11-23 01:36:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/616617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/February_Eight/pseuds/February_Eight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eridan Ampora practically flew down the dingy prison wing corridor, striding quickly and purposefully, his teeth locked together in annoyance and a high purple flush flaming across his cheekbones. The dirtscraping mustardblood had stood him up. Yet again. This was seriously starting to kindle thoughts of re-assessing his current roaming privileges.</p><p>Too lazy to add a summary, have the first few lines ;) First stab at posting Homesmut</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Powershift

**Author's Note:**

> Purposely vague timeline, no SGRUB game session. Typing quirks dropped for fluidity

 

Eridan Ampora practically flew down the dingy prison wing corridor, striding quickly and purposefully, his teeth locked together in annoyance and a high purple flush flaming across his cheekbones. The dirtscraping mustardblood had stood him up. Yet again. This was seriously starting to kindle thoughts of re-assessing his current roaming privileges.  
  
As usual he found Sollux Captor hunched in front of a computer, messing with code by the look of it. He must have heard Eridan enter the room but as usual was making a big show of not noticing. God he was infuriating like that.  
  
Eridan swept toward him, cape flowing in the slip stream of his movement, making him look powerful, impressive, majestic. Or at least it did in his own mind‘s eye. Sollux didn’t glance his way even when Eridan stopped huffily right behind him. Only when Eridan roughly grasped a handful of his hair and yanked his head back was he forced to make an acknowledgement as the seadweller’s cold lips pressed forcefully against his own.  
  
"I expected you to be waitin in my quarters when I returned, not still in here Sol." his tone was both angry and upset as usual, the way he sounded every time Sollux ignored  his orders.  
  
"Maybe I just lost track of time" Sollux answered petulantly, righting himself when Eridan released his hair and settling his fingers back across the keyboard keys again.  
  
"You know damned well you aren’t supposed to still be in here, you continually do this just to spite me, after I been so fuckin magnanimous to you. You would be dead right now if it wasn't for me, pissblood."  
  
Sure, he had escaped being culled outright, thanks to the violet blood's intervention. But as a result, Sollux had become little more than a prisoner instead. Or worse, he lamented miserably as he touched the metal circling his neck, a pet. Primarily the collar suppressed his psychic powers, he found out that they had been in use on the imperial fleet ships for some time already, but it was also electronically coded with his details. He could get through any checkpoints on the ship he was cleared to access, but that really wasn’t that many. Even without his psiionics he was still certified too high risk to roam more freely due to his hacking skills. He wasn’t allowed anywhere that he might pose a major security threat. So the lower class habitation levels and prison block were really about the limit of his free roaming territory.  
  
Eridan had actually had to relinquish full time use of beautiful apartment in one of the officer’s levels for a more basic one just so that he could be closer to Sollux and allow him the freedom to leave it when he so desired. He liked to remind Sollux of this fact frequently, as though Sollux should be sickeningly grovellingly grateful to Eridan for every small privilege he had received and heedful of every great luxury that Eridan had given up for him. But Sollux had known Eridan too long and it was hard to treat him differently despite the circumstantial change.  
  
"I ordered a five course meal to be delivered to my quarters and I told you to be there for when it arrived. I also would have expected you to have bathed and changed your clothes really Sol, you are a disgrace." Eridan's purple eyed gaze swept over him critically. "You are going out of your way to annoy me as well as make me look bad."  
  
Sollux shrugged and resumed typing, until Eridan grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him forcibly up off of the chair.  
  
"You are coming back to dine with me right now" he snapped.  
  
"I'm not hungry." Sollux stated quietly.  
  
"Bullshit, I don’t think you have eaten all day and I won't allow you to waste away to an even more pathetic specimen of a troll than you already are."  
  
He tugged insistently on Sollux's shirt.  
  
"Don't make me drag you back."  
  
Eridan only released the fabric of his shirt when he was sure Sollux was actually following him. He used a coded ring to open the recreation room door. It was programmed to a much higher access level than Sollux's collar. Every now and again Sollux wondered if he fancied his chances of overpowering Eridan and stealing the ring to try and escape. Some feeling he couldn’t quite acknowledge always held him back. Eridan didn’t treat him all that badly really, and his conscience just wouldn’t let him get Eridan into major trouble, the sort that would end up getting them both sentenced to death. The logistics of escaping a space ship was also a fair hitch to any exit strategy.  
  
He sloped down the dim corridors with his hands shoved in his pockets, following the flowing purple cape in front of him. Another thrilling night of Eridan's company... sigh. Sollux wished he would make some other friends and bother them some more, although most of the other trolls on the ship were adults. There really weren’t any direct peers of the same age. In their friendship circles on Alternia, Sollux had had very little to do with Eridan. He primarily knew of him through Karkat, otherwise he was the sort of high blooded snob who only consorted with other highblooded snobs. Although he had found out more recently of course that Eridan had had designs on him from afar, more so after he had become romantically involved with Feferi.  
  
Feferi hadn't been dead all that long really, the flagship had only been back in space for a few weeks after a short stay on Alternia. As much as the two male trolls disliked each other, they had both loved Feferi and were somewhat united in their shared grief, even though they actually spoke about their loss very rarely.  
  
Back in Eridan's apartment the table had been all set up with quite the banquet.  
  
"I'd send you to clean yourself up first but I don’t want this to spoil even further." Eridan snarked sourly as he unfastened the stupid cape and hung it up, so that Sollux now only had to deal with his stupid pretentious black and purple trimmed uniform. Sollux himself still wore the same clothes he was captured in, despite having a basic wardrobe of alternative outfits provided on the ship. He just didn't want to wear any of them.  
  
"Sit down." They seated themselves and to shut Eridan up Sollux helped himself to a good sized portion of food.  
  
Sollux jabbed at the fancy looking appetizers with his fork. Delicate and colourful arrangements of various bits of land and sea dwelling fauna from some planet or other, most likely expensive and rare delicacies that either tasted like shit or of nothing at all. To be honest he just didn’t think much of fine dining, he had always been a fast food junky and was perfectly happy eating any old crap smothered liberally in his favourite grub sauce. Eridan obviously appreciated it though and as always, thought he was treating Sollux to the finer things which would eventually make the land troll more receptive to his advances, but Sollux genuinely didn’t care for such things. Or the advances. The only real enjoyment he got out of Eridan really was winding him up.  
  
"So, you were busy today?" Eridan tried to make conversation. Sollux decided to adhere to the lie when in actual fact he hadn't achieved much at all. He had only really switched to his coding when he had exhausted the limited library of games and entertainment in the rec room of the prison block.  
  
"I think I made decent progress."  
  
"Yeah, well. Just don’t be doin anythin that looks suspicious, you're still being closely monitored and I don’t want to ever come back to find you've been hauled in for interrogation."  
  
Eridan spent long hours away elsewhere in the ship with the elder trolls. It seemed they were actually impressed with his dull backlog of flarping campaign strategies and general awful highblood attitude and had been happy to take him into training to find him a post on one of the conquest ships. The best Sollux could hope for was a dull and uneventful existence until he was mature enough to potentially be wired into the engine room of a ship and used to power it. That’s how the ship they currently resided in was powered, Eridan had told him it was so. Somewhere on one of the numerous levels he or she was imprisoned, some unfortunate lowblood psychic being painfully worked to the limit of their powers moving the vast ship through space. It made Sollux feel ill to think about it.  
  
Eridan was quite contentedly getting through dishes, but Sollux pushed his plate aside after forcing a few more mouthfuls down. Instead he poured a generous glass of wine and almost downed it in one. He didn’t care for the taste but the alcohol content could make the evening a little less tedious. Eridan looked at him disapprovingly.  
  
"Sol don’t drink that like you chug soda, its..."  
  
"Expensive, I know" Sol cut in dryly. He topped it up to a second glass.  
  
Sollux didn’t eat much more and fortunately for him Eridan didn't give him any more grief about it. Instead he filled up his own glass of wine, sidled over to Sol and ran his fingers through Sollux's ratty hair.  
  
"Come on Sol, bathe with me then come to bed" Eridan dipped his hand down, touched Sollux's crotch suggestively. He was a lot pushier now than when they first boarded the ship, generally more confident in both his professional and private life. Sollux backed down when his misbehaviour made Eridan threaten to punish him, but he still didn’t feel obliged to pander to Eridan's demands gladly.  
  
But it got a little more tolerable every time. Since the first time.

  
  
\-------

  
  
"Take your clothes off."  
  
Sollux gave a short, harsh laugh. "Fuck off..."  
  
"I mean it" Eridan's voice rose slightly in pitch with annoyance.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Why do you think, you fucking idiot."  
  
"Yeah, somehow I thought as much. Not interested." Sollux brushed off his solicitation brusquely.  
  
"Sollux..."  
  
Sollux made to walk past him and leave, but Eridan stepped obstinately into his pathway to the door.  
  
"Sol, I can have you sent to the prison block instead... and then it wont be me doing this..." It was meant to sound like a threat but Eridan's voice became strained at the end of the sentence. Sollux picked up the implication though. His blood ran a little colder when he considered just one or two of things the adult guards could do to him, without repercussion, without end. He was lowblood trash. He didn’t have any rights. They stared each other down for long, drawn out seconds.  
  
Saying nothing, he gripped his tee-shirt and pulled it up over his head, exposing his downright scrawny torso. He was hardly the picture of a fit and robust young troll. He ate junk food, didn’t get much exercise at all, had terrible posture from hunching over his computer screen for hours on end. He kicked off his shoes, socks, and unfastened his trouser fly. Then he hesitated and glanced at Eridan. The sea troll was watching him as though mesmerised, a slight purple flush colouring his cheeks. How could he appear more embarrassed at Sollux stripping than Solllux himself was, especially when he gave the command in the first place. He was so odd. This was gonna be all kinds of awkward.  
  
Sollux dropped his trousers and stepped out of them, then simply stood there, glaring at Eridan. Your move, was the silent challenge. Eridan looked him over at length, at his thin body, odd coloured eyes, pale skin even for a troll, and the solid metal ring around his neck the only adornment on his body. He reached out to touch the ring, traced it’s edge and then left it’s hard surface to trace his fingertips across Sollux's warm skin. Sollux could still feel his psiionics flare inside at the invasive touch, but rendered impotent by the cold circlet.  
  
"On your knees." Eridan croaked, finally finding his voice.  
  
"Huh, straight to the point and no romance required, I like it." Sollux jeered.  
  
"Shut up, just do it." he responded angrily to the taunt.  
  
Sollux sank to his knees on the cold hard floor, and had a strange moment to reflect on the sudden change in his fortunes that had lead him to find himself knelt in front of a guy he hated while said hated guy fumbled with the fastenings of his own trousers with trembling hands.  
  
Eridan's bulge was already fully erect when he managed to clumsily free it from his pants. It was flushed the same shade of purple as Eridan's face, and already slick with his intense arousal. It was actually an attractive size and shape too, Sollux noted with a pang of something like jealously, but having a decent package didn’t necessarily make up for an intolerable personality. Sollux wasn’t about to admit that he hadn’t actually done what he was about to do before, but still, time to get this whole unpleasantness over as soon as possible.  
  
Eridan twitched slightly when Sollux took a firm grip on the base of his bulge. He rubbed a couple of times, making Eridan shudder, before tipping the leaking tip towards his lips and darting his tongue out for an experimental taste. Inoffensive, slightly salty, nothing unusual. He clutched at Eridan's thigh with his free hand to steady himself as he opened his mouth wide, shielded the hard points of his teeth as much as possible, and sucked on the whole tip. Eridan gasped, his hands moving to reflexively grip Sollux's head by his hair.  
  
"Fuck...ED..." Sollux backed off to reprimand him "Watch the sudden movements if you don’t want it bitten off!"  
  
"S... Sorry" Eridan hissed, but he didn’t let go of Sollux. He could feel him exploring the curved shapes of his four pointed horns, and interlacing his fingers between them as Sollux swallowed his bulge again, deeper this time. He stroked with his tongue, worked with his other hand the length that he couldn’t cover with his mouth. He figured Eridan's nook, tucked away just beyond the base of his bulge, had to be fairly damp considering how engorged and throbbing his member was. He didn’t feel like finding out though unless Eridan made him do it, wasn't about to appear too eager.  
  
Eridan was squinting down at him, biting his lower lip, starting to guide his speed and rhythm with the grip on his hair and horns. But Sollux was taken almost completely by surprise when the other troll shuddered, a long hard tremor that seemed to run the length of his body, pulled him close enough to nearly suffocate him, and ejaculated directly down his throat. Sollux tried to pull back, his throat working convulsively to swallow the hot gush and not choke as Eridan refused to let him go. He fell back dizzily on his ass when he was finally released, gasping for air, his lips slicked with purple tinged genetic material.  
  
"Ugh..." he coughed, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. "Next time you pull that fucking stunt I will bite."  
  
"No, you won't." Eridan informed him curtly, still highly flushed around his cheeks and fins as he tucked his softening, retracting bulge back into his pants. "You belong to me Sol, you'll do whatever I want you to do. Or I'll leave you to the mercy of the Condesce and she can decide your fate."  
  
"You wouldn't." Sollux tried to call his bluff on the threat.  
  
"I don’t want to Sol," his tone softened a little. "You know I don't, because I want you. I care about you enough to want to protect you from the hideous things that could be done to you on this ship, don't you understand that?"  
  
Sollux understood perfectly well. But as a high level psiionic he was so much stronger than Eridan and, the thought of being enslaved to him was so unbearable, it just annoyed him so much he almost wanted to take his chances. But something in Eridan's expression, when he made these threats... didn’t seem completely self serving. Maybe he had seen first hand the other lowbloods in the ship, and no matter how much shit he took from Sollux he wouldn’t ever give him up.  
  
Eridan had taken his clothes when he left, and left Sollux locked in the room naked for hours. He hunched himself up on the simple bed and hugged his legs to his chest. He could still slightly taste Eridan right at the back of his throat. The small square chamber was chilly, and bare of any real comfort or entertainment. He guessed Eridan was really trying to hammer home the point of how unpleasant it could be to be left locked in a cell in disobedience, as opposed to accepting the comfort of an apartment as a reward for compliance.  
  
But things were still to get worse before they got slightly better.

  
\---------

  
  
Eridan filled the large tub with steaming hot water. Sollux shed his clothes without hesitancy now as Eridan had already seen all of him there was too see. Frequently. He actually tossed his clothes into the collection hamper, Eridan was right... he had worn them a little too long and they were probably about ready to get up and walk away by themselves. Eridan removed his glasses since they had started to fog up from the steam anyway, and placed them on the nearby sink unit. Sollux had to admit they were much better than the ones he had worn before, replacing those ugly thick square frames for thin rectangular ones that complimented his features rather than make him look like a gigantic hipster nerd douchebag. He stripped out of his clean, pressed uniform and hung it up neatly, as he always did whereas Sollux generally dropped his rags wherever he happened to remove them, much to Eridan's annoyance. 

  
\---------

  
Sollux snapped out of his uneasy slumber on the cell bed with a jerk when Eridan pulled it shut just a little too hard after letting himself in. Sollux sat up, rubbed his bi-coloured eyes blearily until Eridan's anxious face came into focus.    
  
"Wha... what is it?" He mumbled as Eridan approached, but was prevented by saying anything more by Eridan hooking his fingers through the metal collar and pulling Sollux's lips in clumsily against his own in an inexperienced trainwreck of a kiss. Sollux refused to reciprocate and tried to push Eridan back even as the grip around the collar pulled tighter. Irritated, Sollux resorted to nipping his lip, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to get him to back off.  
  
"Eridan... What the fuck are you doing?"  
  
"I'm making you my Matesprit Sol." was the hissed reply.  
  
Sollux laughed. "Nah, I wasn’t sold by the little try-before-you buy event earlier today. I think I'll pass on that offer."  
  
"Its not an offer, I'm not giving you a choice in the matter." Eridan snapped, as he continued to bear down on Sollux, trying to force him bodily backwards onto the mattress. Starting to feel more annoyed and a little panicked, Sollux began to push back with increased urgency.  
  
"Sollux don't fuckin fight me" Eridan meant business when he called Sollux by his full name. He tried to hold Sollux down with one hand as he went for his trouser fastenings with the other. The weaker troll took advantage of the awkward manoeuvre to shove Eridan back hard and away from the bed, sending him stumbling and very nearly falling. When he regained himself, he glared at Sollux nastily. Sollux glared back, panting with the exertion of fighting him off as Eridan unfastened his cape, letting it drop to the floor, and reached into his trouser pocket to retrieve a small silver device, a key fob or something.  
  
Sollux didn’t have long to wonder what it was before Eridan raised it, and suddenly his entire body was thrown in a tense spasm of white hot, electrocuting pain. As the long seconds of agony dragged on his ears seemed filled with a terrible shrill, high pitched noise which he thought distantly might actually be the sound of his own screaming. When it finally stopped he had come to rest lying on his back, staring wide eyed at the ceiling and shaking uncontrollably. Then Eridan's scowling face appeared in his vision.  
  
"I genuinely didn’t want to have to do that Sol."  
  
The next thing Sollux felt through the twitching, buzzing haze of the tazering he had just received was completely unexpected... the alien feeling of Eridan's fingers groping for the entrance of his nook, and then pushing roughly inside. His mind screamed out in protest but his psiionics failed, and his weak and scrawny body had been left paralyzed by the attack. He lay scowling a little, a pathetic low growl in his throat the best vocal protest he could muster as Eridan's abusive poking around continued. The bed dipped a little under the sea troll's weight as he climbed onto it, and Sollux just knew when the fingers withdrew from his nook that Eridan was back to unfastening his pants again.  
  
Maybe if he just closed his eyes and thought of something else, it wouldn’t be that bad.

  
\--------

  
The first time that Eridan fucked him was a weird choice of reminisance,  Sollux thought dully as he sank further down the edge of the tub and deeper into the hot water so that it rose right up to his chin. Aside the fact that it was pretty much a rape, it was largely uneventful. It hurt at first as Eridan forced himself in,  probably because Sollux hadn't had anyone take him there before and also because he really wasn’t all that aroused, but as Eridan moved against him he felt himself loosen. His groin felt a little warmer too but his bulges failed to swell enough to make an appearance from inside their sheath. He managed to overcome the stiffness in his neck enough to turn his head to one side, so he could stare at the opposite wall and not Eridan's stupid, purple flushed fish face as he screwed him. All in all, Eridan pailed very quickly, and his awkwardness throughout gave away his inexperience.  
  
Sollux never said a word as Eridan straightened himself out and retrieved his cape from the floor. He did however feel an overwhelming need to try and get up and tear Eridan's throat out with just his teeth. But his limbs were still leaden and all he could do was scowl at the back of the troll who now wouldn’t even look at him.  
  
But when Eridan did glance back before fleeing from the room, that enraged scowl faltered. His cheeks were awash with the purple tracks of his tears.  
  
Eridan never reappeared. The next entry into the cell some time later was made by two adult trolls, one male and one female, both clothed in similar uniforms of a basic design, the common feature being the colour scheme of black trimmed in green. When they urged him to get up off the bed and stand he found that he could again, slightly shakily. They cuffed his wrists together, wrapped a thick blanket around him and lead him out of the room.  
  
The medical room was predictably plain and sterile looking. He sat docily on the table while his blood was extracted, samples divided up into several vials. Photos were taken. They measured his height, weight, heart rate, took dental records, swabbed the inside of his mouth. They wired pads to his forehead, printed off his brain activity. He stood, his cheeks colouring furiously, gripping the edges of the table as they probed his nook, swabbed more samples. He couldn't help but growl low in his throat as the male held him while the female forcibly manipulated his flaccid bulges out of his sheath. Their expressions when they realised he had two instead of one was something he was unlikely to forget for some time. They might as well just stamp FREAK on his file in huge letters, followed by RECOMMENDED FOR CULLING.  
  
After all the poking, prodding and exhaustive recording was over he was taken to a new cell, in a long corridor seemingly filled with such cells, but he was too tired to wonder who or what the other rooms may have contained. Lay on the small simple cell bed, he wasn’t long in drifting into an uneasy sleep.

  
\-------

  
Eridan slid into the steaming water beside him. Sollux twitched when Eridan laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.  
  
"What is it Sol..." he sounded concerned, and when Sollux turned to meet his gaze he could see the worry in his eyes and creased brow.  
  
"Nothing. It's nothing, I'm fine." he replied softly. " I'm just... thinking."  
  
"You can talk to me, you know. Maybe I could help?" Eridan squeezed his shoulder a little. Sollux had to admit that he was far less of a tool recently, almost regularly dropping the act and being more genuine. Really trying to comfort Sollux in his miserable confinement. It was small but powerful gestures like this that meant more to him than any of Eridan's lavish gifts or treats. But he still struggled to accept anything from Eridan. More than anything he wanted his freedom and independence back but they both knew that was near enough impossible right now, stuck on the flagship ship in deep space.

  
\--------  
  
  
In the dim cell block it was impossible to tell when one perigee became the next. Technically, since the ship was travelling through space, the daily cycle always felt skewed with no sunrise or sunset, and it was down to the routine of activity to stay orientated. Sollux tried to work out if his meals were delivered to some kind of schedule, but eventually decided they were probably just given to him whenever someone remembered he was there. The food was bland and basic, and sometimes he couldn’t even force himself to choke it down. Sollux would have sold his soul for just a little grub sauce to pour over it. He felt filthy, the best he could do to bathe was scrub himself with a ragged cloth dipped into the ice cold water he ran into his small sink.  
  
But the boredom was the worst. He had absolutely no means to entertain himself. As a consequence he thought a lot, then he over thought a lot, and finally ended up wretchedly depressed. He found himself sleeping more, just as a way to pass the time.  
  
Eridan had promised to try and help him somehow, and all that had ended in was being taken advantage of and abused. He couldn’t believe even Eridan could be quite so callous, as little as he really knew about him from Karkat, and later Feferi. They both said he put up quite the bullshit front but under it all he was terribly awkward and insecure. But in Sollux's eyes he'd failed to show himself as anything other than the backstabbing, cruel and violent piece of shit typical of his blood caste.  
  
The electronic lock to his door snapped open, deafeningly loud in the endless silence he had become accustomed to. A hulking guard filled the doorway, his uniform trimmed cobalt blue. Sollux's heart leapt into his throat as the huge troll stepped into the room and pulled the door to behind him, and advanced on the smaller troll frozen in terror where he sat on the bed.  
  
Oh God, this is it... What is he going to do to me... I'm gonna get pounded into a smear on this bed and then probably snapped in two like a fucking twig. I'm so dead...  
  
Sollux didn't even attempt to duck away when the guard reached him and wrapped one large, meaty hand around his upper arm and hauled him to his feet, holding him there while he reached to pull something from his belt with his other hand. Sollux couldn't even look, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to let his legs buckle. But the next thing he felt was a sharp magnetic clink and then two short beeps, and he couldn’t deny his curiosity. He opened his eyes to see that the guard had joined a kind of electronic reader or scanner device to his collar. After about a minute or so it beeped again, and the guard disconnected it.  
  
"What... What was that?" Sollux couldn’t help asking.  
  
"Programming your collar with your profile and ship access rights" the guard answered in a deep, low tone.  
  
The information provided just went directly over his head.  
  
"Profile... Access rights?"  
  
The guard produced a set of cuffs and secured Sollux's wrists together.  
  
"Come with me". He ordered sternly "I'll be escorting you to your Matesprit now."  
  
"Matesprit... I don’t have a Matesprit..." Sollux faltered as the guard strode toward the door.  
  
"Your profile says you do. Eridan Ampora. Now get a move on, I haven’t got all day."  
  
Eridan... Now what was he up to. Sollux had half a mind to refuse to leave on principle, he would be perfectly happy to never see that stupid finned face ever again. But then again, he did want out of the cell.  
  
He walked ahead of the guard through the dim, cold passages of the cell block, through to brighter, cleaner corridors. They took an elevator up to another level, far more spacious and pleasant looking, passing the occasional green uniformed troll. Then a different elevator again, which seemed to go through quite a few levels. The level they came out onto next made Sollux wince inwardly. A wide, spotlessly clean corridor, walls decked with the colours and signs of the noble classes, what looked like marble flooring, gold fittings, a wide strip of soft, thick fuchsia carpet running the length of the walkway. Just... sickening extravagant and self important. They turned down a narrower corridor branching away from the main one, passing several doors until they came to the one with a small plaque reading AMPORA on it. The guard knocked.  
  
"Yes?" a familiar voice called from the other side.  
  
"Prisoner transfer." the guard responded gruffly.  
  
The door practically flew open. There stood Eridan, and his eyes lit up as they fell on Sollux, slouching weakly beside the huge blue blooded guard.  
  
"Fantastic, I'll take it from here."  
  
The guard only sneered, and produced the device again that he had used on the collar. Eridan took it and keyed something in while Sollux's cuffs were unlocked. Then the guard took it back and left without another word.  
  
"Come in Sol." Eridan encouraged softly. Against his better judgement, and specifically the memory of his last encounter with Eridan, Sollux shifted hesitantly forward through the doorway.  
  
He gazed around open-mouthed at Eridan's spacious and neatly appointed quarters. The comfortable lounge area with its deep purple upholstered furniture set and large entertainment screen, and just off to the left a food preparation area and dining table. Eridan appeared to have been previously sat at his desk in an adjacent work area, on which a powered up computer was stationed and surrounded by volumes of books and a couple of unfurled star charts and maps. There were two more doors that must lead to other rooms, presumably the respit block and ablution chamber.  
  
"You look awful..."  
  
Sollux had almost forgotten Eridan was stood there. He turned to look at him, his face a picture in disbelief.  
  
"What... What the fuck is all this?" he stuttered.  
  
"What's what?" Eridan looked confused for a moment, then realised what Sollux was referring to. "Oh, this place?" He coloured slightly. "They let me take the crew aptitude exams and I did pretty well. I've been taken into training to become an officer, so I qualified for basic accommodation."  
  
"Oh, only this basic?" Sollux muttered sarcastically. Eridan looked a little wounded by Sollux's scorn.  
  
"Well, basic for the nobility quarters." He defended himself a little lamely.  
  
Silence fell between them for a while.  
  
"You should go and shower while I make you somethin to eat. You look thin."  
  
"Exactly what is going on here ED?" Sollux felt his voice rise in anger. "Why am I up here in the fucking highblood quarters and not still rotting away in a damp cell."  
  
"I promised I'd help you, didn't I?  
  
"Yeah but, I thought you'd changed your mind, or lied or something." His breathing hitched a little. "What you did didn't feel much like help."  
  
"Let's not talk about that Sol. I did what had to be done to keep you to myself and out of the hands of the Condesce."  
  
"You... Are a piece of shit." Sollux snarled at him.  
  
"Give me a break Sol." Eridan looked even more distressed, and before Sollux could react the taller troll lunged forward and pulled him into his arms. "It's been over three weeks. They spent an age reviewing your case, I was so sure I was going to lose you". Sollux stood rigid in his embrace, not sure what to make of what Eridan was trying to tell him. All he knew was that he felt mildly nauseous and Eridan's touch was making his skin crawl. But he was shocked to feel dampness on his neck. Was Eridan actually... Crying...

  
\--------

  
Eridan nuzzled his neck as they reclined in the deep, soothing water. Sollux knew the water made him happier. Through the ripples he could see the long purple slashes of the sea troll's gills along the sides of his torso, flaring rhythmically with his breathing. He could also see that Eridan's bulge was extended and partially erect. Sure enough, Eridan's fingers were soon tracing suggestive circles around his sheath opening and he moved to tracing his tongue along Sollux's jaw.  
  
"Come on Sol... Its been a few days..." he whispered against Sollux's ear, then bit it lightly.  
  
"Should have known the fancy food came with a price" Sollux needled him.  
  
"Don't be like that Sol... Can't you see I'm really trying here?  
  
Sollux sighed. He guessed he hadn't given Eridan a break for a while, and if he was completely honest with himself it even wore him down a bit being so continually difficult. Eridan was just about the only person he could vent his frustration on, the only one who understood or even cared.  
  
He turned in towards Eridan and pressed his lips against the sea troll's. Eridan returned the kiss enthusiastically, running his hand up the back of Sollux's neck and tangling his fingers in his hair. Sollux pressed his hands against Eridan's smooth, broad chest. It irritated him how Eridan's body was filling out into an impressive young adult form... Lean and well muscled, perfectly proportioned limbs, smooth skin with the slight sheen inherent to the aquatic subspecies. Highblooded perfection. Sollux figured he would retain his awkward, gangly teenage form right into his adult years, only getting taller but never bulking up. He hated his prominent, uneven fangs when he looked at Eridan's perfect set of even, sharp teeth. The sloppy makeout they were currently engaged in warmed him to his groin, and as his twin bulges began to engorge and emerge from his body, he hated his mutant genitalia too. He was the single most pathetic specimen he had ever laid his eyes on. He had no idea how he had managed to make friends and even fill a few quadrants. He had no idea why Eridan went to so much effort to keep him when there were probably plenty of his own kind on the ship to hook up with.  
  
Eridan groped for his bulges and squeezed them together firmly, making Sollux gasp. He actually didn’t seem at all phased by the mutation. The first time he had actually aroused Sollux enough to see them, he'd looked surprised, but as Sollux had lay there staring miserably at a far corner of the room past Eridan's shoulder, the sea troll had dipped down to his crotch and done the most admirable job of attempting to felate the two of them simultaneously that he was ever likely to see. If it did put him off, he didn't give away even the slightest hint. And he was always hounding Sollux for more.  
  
Eridan broke the smooch, nipped playfully at Sollux's lip and then began to trail kisses down his neck, over his prominent collarbone, moving down his thin chest. Of course, being in the large deep bath this meant that Eridan was quickly submerged. Through the soothing caress of the warm water around his body he felt Eridan's tongue run along the length of one of his bulges as he held them together, and closed his lips around both tips.  Sollux gripped the sides of the tub, biting his lip as Eridan managed to swallow him deeper. It was both unnerving and fascinating, him being submerged for so long it kinda felt dangerous but that was his instinct as a landweller cutting in. The sea dwellers were perfectly adapted to breathing underwater, Feferi had spent most of her short life living exclusively in her hive on the seabed, doing everything underwater. Eridan himself had actually chose to stay on land to build his hive, but it wasn’t as though he had completely given up all his marine instincts. Sollux felt that he particularly liked to screw in water. He had to admit that the warm weightless embrace of the water while being screwed was a unique experience. He moaned as Eridan ran a thumb firmly over his relaxed nook, dipping it inside, testing his readiness.  
  
Eridan broke back through the surface of the water and planted his lips roughly against Sollux's neck, forcing his body close between Sollux's legs and pressing himself firmly against that entrance. He bit down hard enough to draw blood and penetrated Sollux at almost the exact same moment, so the loud moan that burst from Sollux's lips could have been from either action. He gripped the sides of the tub harder and wrapped his legs around Eridan's waist, trying to keep his head up while Eridan got carried away as usual and tried to half drown him as he raked at Sollux's sides with his nails, thrusting hard and sucking at the yellow blood dripping slowly from the puncture wounds in his neck and diffusing away in the churning water.  
  
"Fuck.. ED..." He spluttered. "Stop always trying to fucking drown me."  
  
"S...sorry Sol" Eridan hitched, "I... I'm gonna come already" He latched clumsily onto Sollux's lips again, pulling him close as he could and penetrating as deeply as possible as his bulge throbbed and twitched and disgorged his pent up load of genetic material deep into Sollux's body. The water coloured a little in a small inky purple cloud when Eridan pulled out. Sollux inched himself up to a position of his head being comfortably well above the waterline as Eridan reached for his bulges again.  
  
He still found it hard to reach his own release with Eridan. Unlike Eridan's feelings towards him he had never felt anything of a red or black nature, and even trying to dredge up some pale connection was hard work. It would really burn him if he knew, but Sollux often closed his eyes and thought of Feferi while Eridan jerked or blew him. He sometimes got a little private joy from deceiving Eridan like that. But mostly it left him depressed and aching to see Fef's sweet smiling face just one more time even as he ejaculated over Eridan's fingers.  
  
"Who needs a Kismesis with a Matesprit as rough as you..." Sollux pressed a handtowel against his bitten neck to stem the bleeding while he critically assessed the scratches and scrapes to his body in the mirror as Eridan towelled him dry.  
  
"Well we probably would work better as a Kismesitude but those relations aren’t really encouraged here, too much mediating and upheaval involved. Predictably unpredictable and disruptive to the optimum runnin of the ship. I don’t doubt there aren’t a few low key relations though."  
  
"Guess we can continue being secretly shitty to each other then." Sollux shrugged Eridan off, dropped the bloody towel on the floor and walked back towards the respit block, sneaking a sideways glance at Eridan bending to pick it up and grinning to himself.  
  
He climbed into the bed. It wasn’t as fancy as the one in Eridan's quarters but still a thousand times better than a hard cell bed. Still kind of odd after so many sweeps of having to sleep in sopor slime, but the ship was resistant to the whispers of the horrorterrors. That, combined with the collar suppressing his psychic powers, made for an unnerving silence in his head these days.  
  
He pulled the sheets close around his body like a cocoon and waited for Eridan to try and unravel it to squeeze in next to him.  
  


***


	2. Revelation

 

Sollux clutched the pillows under his chin closer and panted. Face flushed, on his knees, his thighs trembling, rear pointed upwards as Eridan gripped his hips, fucking him hard. It was still early in the cycle of hours that Eridan called his perigee, in fact Sollux had still been sound asleep as Eridan stirred, nuzzled him, groped at his sexual organs and finally mounted him, all before he was barely conscious. His bulges hung plump and extended between his legs but he felt too tired to fully engage in reciprocal sex play, he’d rather Eridan just pail and let him go back to sleep. Eridan moaned as he thrust. Totally fucking loved the sound of his own voice. Sollux bit the pillow to maintain his own silence as his nook was stretched and filled repeatedly.  
  
When Eridan had gasped, twitched with his last spasm, and pumped his Matesprit with a generous offering of viscous purple slurry, Sollux pushed him roughly away and drew the sheets back up and over his head. The seatroll shrugged to himself, standing and wandering off into the ablution block, absent-mindedly squeezing his still sensitive bulge. Within an hour, he was clean, uniformed and off into the ship, clutching a grubtop and a couple of books under one arm, while Sollux dozed.  
  
He fidgeted around in bed for a further two hours, occasionally disturbed by fleeting visions in bad dreams. His gurgling stomach eventually roused him enough to pull himself out from inside the tangle of bed sheets. He ambled blearily over to the food prep area, naked except for his irremovable collar and the now dried smears of violet around his groin and inner thighs.  
  
He opened a tin of puree, poured the slop into a bowl and set it in the microwave while he dug out a couple of grub loaves and retrieved a sauce from the thermal hull. Eridan had actually procured him some grub sauces from somewhere despite still occasionally mocking it as 'wiggler food', as though Sollux gave a shit about what Eridan thought of his dietary preferences. He tore the loaves into bits, dumped them into the puree and covered the whole thing in sauce. He sat on the plain sofa in the sparsely decorated lounge and stirred the concoction around, eating slowly, wondering how to spend the long empty hours stretched out ahead of him. He hadn't left the apartment in a few days from feeling particularly wretched and wanting to do little more than sleep, mope around silently and ignore Eridan. But it couldn't go on like this, he had to get out.  
  
He showered and looked through his limited choice of clothing. He couldn’t find his grey jeans and black tee-shirt... maybe Eridan had made good his threat to dispose of them. They were getting ragged but had sentimental value to Sollux, the last physical keepsake he had from his previous life, everything else were mere memories. A neat suit of black was hung in the closet, very similar in design to what Eridan and others he had seen on the ship wore, trimmed in yellow, but he had never even so much as tried it on. He guessed Eridan had had it tailored for him in case he ever had to accompany Eridan somewhere that he needed to look smart. But that last thing he ever fancied was having to endure the condescending looks and snarky comments from the higher ranks at his blood colour displayed so glaringly, so brazenly in their presence. There was no point to Sollux in pretending to be what he was not, and he didn’t even want to fight to prove himself to anyone. He guessed he was already deep in the mire of grudging acceptance towards his miserable lot in life.  
  
He had at least three sets of plain grey prison overalls but Eridan certainly didn't mind his refusal to wear those baggy, charmless sacks. He did have some other black or grey jeans so he selected a black pair. He paired it with a with a dark grey tee-shirt with a large black spade printed on it. Real cute.  
  
He despised Eridan having control of his wardrobe.  
  
He pulled on socks and trainers, shuffled towards the door and ducked down to make the electronic contact with the door lock with his collar. Only he had to fucking do this stupid manoeuvre, everyone else had rings or bracelets or just fobs. Things that didn’t involve bending over awkwardly every time you wanted in or out of somewhere.  
  
He stepped out into the deserted corridor. So much choice. He could go and wander the low security prison block corridors, mostly for the exercise because the guards would get annoyed eventually and send him away. Or his usual haunt, the dreaded recreation room. Within it’s four grey walls it held a grand total of three un-networked computers, a console and entertainment screen, a few books and movies, an air hockey table, a treadmill and a weight bench. As soon as he was there and assessing his options he wanted out again.  
  
He put a random movie on and sprawled out on the sofa.  
  
                                                                                                         --------  
  
Predictably, he fell asleep barely twenty minutes in and woke up to the end credits. Sighing, he turned the screen off and decided to just head back.  
  
He had just activated the lock and was about to push the door open when he heard voices outside. He stopped where he was with the door just open a crack. Probably best to let the guards pass, most likely they would security check him if he left the rec room right in front of them. He had the correct clearance of course but he just didn't enjoy the hassle.  
  
“Yeah, you’ll love it, he’s a mouthy little shit. You would have thought he’d be losing steam by now but he’s as angry as ever. Harmless though, think it’s pretty much been established by now that he doesn’t have any psychic ability.”  
  
Sollux froze completely, barely even breathing as he tried to listen more closely as they walked past.  
  
“Bright red blood. I’d like to see that.”  
  
“You probably will.”  
  
Sollux gripped the doorframe dizzily, feeling completely light-headed all of a sudden. They couldn’t actually be referring to who it sounded like they were referring to. That wasn’t possible right?  
  
He strained to catch more of the conversation but they were already out of earshot. Shakily, he opened the door and stepped out. He suddenly felt very vulnerable and headed quickly back to the apartment quarters, barely making eye contact with the guards who watched him curiously as he hurried past.  
  
He poured a cold glass of soda and paced the room gripping it, trying to process what he had heard. Okay, he started with what he knew. The Condesce had been informed by one of her sources of a potential threat to her position of power, and had made the journey to Alternia to challenge Feferi. From what he understood, she hadn’t stood a chance of victory, the Condesce had ambushed her brutally. The primary objective executed, she had investigated further into the current broods inhabiting the planet, assessing other threats or indeed any opportunities. That’s why Sollux himself had ended up captured. They found out about his computing skill and his psiionic ability and it obviously made him a prize too good to pass up.  
  
Feferi had been dispatched quietly, living alone and isolated from others, and so the danger the young Alternians were in went unnoticed until, or around when Sollux was taken. He lived in a highly populated area of hive stems, and the adult trolls and imperial drones that came after him hardly went unnoticed. The communication networks were soon alive with the rumours of the return of Her Imperious Condescension. That was the trigger that sent most trolls to lie low in their hives, not daring to attract attention to themselves. Most trolls.  
  
Not Eridan Ampora.  
  
Only a violet blood with a genocide complex and hugely over-inflated sense of self worth would actually go looking for the invasion party. Eridan wouldn’t talk about his actions in detail, but Sollux was sure that the first thing he had done on picking up the rumours was to go directly to Feferi’s hive and confirm his terrified suspicions. He may have checked on other associates too. And then finally he marched directly into the enemy camp, and pretty much offered himself. He had run a very real risk of getting sliced into tiny pieces on the spot for such impertinence. But the Condesce only laughed in amusement, and agreed to take him along too.  
  
Eridan had had the time to check on their friends that Sollux had been denied. He hadn’t mentioned any other deaths and captures outside of Feferi and himself, but now Sollux was starting to feel like Eridan hadn’t told him everything.  
  
He was distinctly worried that the guards were talking about someone he knew very well.  
  
\----------  
  
With no way to contact him and find out the truth sooner, Sollux endured a traumatic wait for Eridan to return to the apartment. His fettered psiionics flared impotently inside him as the door lock finally clicked open and Eridan entered. He had barely closed the door behind him before Sollux was across the room and gripping Eridan's lapels angrily, managing to actually pin him as Eridan was taken aback by the unexpected attack.  
  
"Okay grubfucker" He practically spat in Eridan's face in his anger. "I want the whole fucking truth out of you, right this fucking minute."  
  
"Sol, get off me." Eridan still looked shocked and confused, but was already trying to free his uniform from Sollux's grasp. "What the hell's gotten into you?"  
  
"YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE HELL HAS GOTTEN INTO ME! YOU BEING A LYING, MANIPULATIVE SHITSTAIN NOT FIT TO..."  
  
He never finished the sentence as it became an agonised cry as Eridan gave up trying to pry Sollux off him and merely reached into his pocket, jamming his thumb down hard on the silver device inside that activated the tazer function built into Sollux's collar. He released Eridan as though he had suddenly become red hot to the touch, and dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, twitching and moaning in pain.  
  
Eridan brushed the creased front of his suit out, tying to look unfazed by Sollux's behaviour.  
  
"I don't like having to do that Sol. Just calm the fuck down and then tell me what the problem is." he said huffily, stepping over Sollux's prone body and fetching himself a drink out of the refrigerator.  
  
"I hate you... so... fucking... much..." Sollux ground out as he struggled shakily to get to his hands and knees on the floor. It had only been a short shock, enough to put him down but not lay him out. Eridan watched him idly as he sipped the beverage.  
  
"You're keeping something... From me."  
  
"Such as?"  
  
"I heard something earlier. Something that makes me think... We aren’t the only Alternians on this ship."  
  
"Well duh. You know that about twenty or so others were brought on board as well as us, this isn't new Sollux..."  
  
"You never said that any of them were our friends!"  
  
Eridan regarded him silently as he stumbled back to his feet.  
  
"You didn’t tell me... that Karkat was on board." Sollux's voice cracked.  
  
"Sol..." it was Eridan's turn now to look distressed. "Sol, I didn't keep anything from you out of spite. I just... didn't think it would help anyone if I told you... Just yet."  
  
"HE'S MY BEST FRIEND YOU ASSHOLE" Sollux raged at him  
  
"Sollux, he's my friend too!" Eridan cried back. "Look... Hear me out okay? Calm down." He tried to approach the bristling troll, his arms outstretched, hands empty, surrendering. Sollux stood his ground, legs apart, bent over slightly at the hips, shaking and unsteady. "Just come and sit down. Please."  
  
Sollux glared at him as Eridan closed the space between them and took his rigid body  
into his arms, but allowed himself to be held.  
  
Eridan guided him through to the quiet chamber of the respitblock and sat him down amongst the tangle of sheets he had created that same day. He kept one of Sollux's hands clasped in his own. He took a deep breath.  
  
"It's true. Karkat is on the ship. He was brought in just after you."  
  
"Why though... Why did they go after him?"  
  
"They didn't initially. Fuckin idiot went and drew attention to himself." Eridan sighed "Some jadeblood he was sweet on in the hive next to his, it was her they were after. He saw them go after her and got all heroic, charging in there all sickles blazing. It only took one injury and they were on him the moment his blood hit the ground."  
  
"Idiot... " Sollux repeated softly under his breath. For such a grumpy, ornery guy it made no sense that he just couldn't help getting involved sometimes with shit that shouldn’t concern him. Of everyone who should have fled or lay low, he should have done so with the most zeal. He had a secret he had to keep hidden and he'd always been so careful. He didn't even reveal it to more than a close friend or two when he was older and feeling a little more confident that his abnormality would continue to go undetected. In fact until this moment, Sollux was convinced that it was still only himself and Terezi that knew about Karkat and his mutant blood type.  
  
"I didn’t know any a this in detail until I signed up to the train wreck myself, all I knew was that Fef was gone, your hivestem was raised to the ground and that Karkat wouldn't respond to any of my messages."  
  
"Have you seen him?" Sollux asked tensely.  
  
"Not for the last couple of weeks. Pretty much drawin a blank on a new and plausible excuse to get access."  
  
"He's in the prison block?"  
  
"Still high security for now, but I have heard that they are finished testing his blood and monitoring him for psychic ability. Unless it's still dormant... highly unlikely... he hasn’t responded to any psychic trigger testing. Maybe when his security downgrade is finalised, I might be able to get you a visit arranged."  
  
"Yeah, I need to see him." Sollux whispered. Eridan's grip tightened around his fingers unconsciously.  
  
"He's not in good shape." Eridan looked distinctly uncomfortable "If you want me to be upright honest with you... some a them started abusing him nearly right from the start. I panicked about anythin happening to you so I had to work real fuckin fast. Using my blood advantage, gettin onside with the crew, finding out about the operation of the ship, looking for loopholes I could use to get you both out."  
  
Sollux's expression was frozen in horror.  
  
"You're the more valuable one, they already put you under and tested your psiionics in the controlled conditions of your unconsciousness, right after being brought in. Perfect match for a ship engine room. You might have been in conditioning already by now if I hadn't found a way to keep you out."  
  
"How did you do it..."  
  
Eridan gave a short, humourless laugh.  
  
"Wishful thinking, on my part. I said you were my Matesprit. So then I had to fuckin go and make it look authentic."  
  
"And that's why..." Sollux trailed off.  
  
"I didn’t have the time to explain and even if you had heard me out, you're proud and stubborn." Eridan snarked. " You would have taken your fuckin chances in the cell block rather than accept my help or advice. Especially if you knew Karkat was there too, hopin you could find the chance to help him somehow... Probably gettin yourself killed into the bargain..."  
  
"But at the time, Karkat was pretty much quarantined until they could work him out, that his mutation wasn't a major threat. I argued the case to let you out under high security restrictions, said that I would be responsible for you... said I couldn’t be without my Matesprit..." Eridan coloured a bit at exposing his plans, his manipulations, his feelings... And his fears.  
  
Sollux couldn’t work out in the slightest whether to squeeze Eridan’s hand back in some sort of reassurance or punch his fucking lights out.  
  
"Sol..." Eridan leant in and whispered against his ear. "I chose you and I'm sorry if that's not what you would have done in my position."  
  
"You are the worst..." Sollux started, but never finished as he turned and pressed his lips against his surprised Matesprit's.

  
*****


	3. Reunion

Sollux whined and gripped the back of Eridan's shirt as the sea troll pinned him down and penetrated him. He had turned up unexpectedly around lunchtime and taken full advantage of Sollux's laziness - finding him still dozing in bed was a good enough invite to drag his naked body out of the ball of sheets and latch onto him with hungry lips and urgent fingers.   
  
"Sol, I've done it, you can go..." he grinned even as he panted in between thrusts. "You can see Karkat." Sollux's eyes widened and despite himself, he pulled Eridan closer to him with relief and a sort of cautious happiness. Eridan tightened his grip on Sollux's bulges, pressed together between his fingers and beginning to leak lightly yellow fluid onto his grey skin.   
  
"Sol... Did I do good?"   
  
"Yeah..." Sollux gave him the praise he was angling for. "That's great ED. What... you've done for me." He hooked his legs over Eridan's hips, pulling him closer and deeper, hoping that a physical gesture of appreciation would carry more weight than his words, as sounding sincere to Eridan wasn’t really one of his strengths even when the sentiment was genuine. It did feel like something of a burden on his mood had been lifted though. Even Eridan randomly forcing himself on him was suddenly more agreeable in their shared excitement at being reunited with their lost friend.   
  
"Oh Sol..." Eridan's eyes welled up embarrassingly with barely held back tears of happiness at finally being able to please his moody Matesprit. Sollux distracted him from getting too ridiculously over emotional by grinding his throbbing bulges more eagerly in Eridan's hand. He hadn't pailed in a couple of days and he actually felt aroused and ready, responsive to the other troll's possessive touch for a change.   
  
"You first then..." Eridan whispered, staying his thrusts to a slower rhythm as he sped up his stroking of Sollux's twin lengths. Sollux screwed his eyes shut, putting all his concentration into the sensation between his legs, the pulsing fullness of Eridan inside his nook and the increasing sensitivity, the oncoming need for release in the warmed flesh of his bulges. He dug his nails into the mattress around him, crying out wordlessly when his inner muscles contracted in orgasm, sending the hot liquid stored inside him arching out, running in wet yellow globs down his heaving chest, stomach, between his trembling thighs and the juncture where Eridan pressed against him tightly. Eridan gave a low moan in response as Sollux's rapt body gripped him.   
  
Sollux lay twitching and compliant as Eridan leant in, bit the side of his neck and managed only a few more rapid, shallow thrusts before he pushed in deeply and held still as he gushed his own genetic load inside with a few strained gasps. He collapsed against Sollux, wonderfully spent.  
  
"When... when do we see him." Sollux breathed quietly.  
  
"His transfer to lower security is later today... maybe tomorrow or the day after." Eridan panted.  
  
"This is great... to hear. But just one other thing... ED... get off me, you're heavy..."  
  
                                                                                                                                                 _______  
  
"Leaving us today are you?" the hulking blueblood guard towered over the small, hunched troll leant against the corner wall as though he barely had the will, physical or mental, to hold himself upright anymore. Ridiculously entrenched in chains, manacles round his wrists and ankles, psychic restraint collar around his neck. He only stirred slightly as he responded, not even bothering to look up at his superior in acknowledgment.   
  
"Fuck... are you talking about..." he croaked in a dry, rasping tone.  
  
Other guards appeared behind the speaker, their fangs bared in amused grins, glinting in the dull light.  
  
"Off to the low security block. Shunning us after all our hospitality towards you." a hint of mirth in the deep voice, the low rumble of laughter from another. "It hurts us a little to see you go but don't worry, we weren't going to send you off without a little farewell party."  
  
"I appreciate the gesture... shitheads."   
  
"Nothing is too much trouble for our favourite little mutant." the guard smiled, reaching down to drag the prisoner to his unsteady feet.  
  
                                                                                                                                          _____  
  
"I want my usual shirt and jeans ED, not gonna be impressed if you got rid of them."  
  
"Okay okay, Sol" Eridan pulled several neatly folded items out of the laundry delivery hamper, finally digging out the clean and pressed, if a little raggedly patched up, tee-shirt and trousers that Sollux was nagging persistently for and passed them to him. Eridan watched him put them on with slight annoyance.  
  
"Sol why can't you put somethin smarter on, like your suit? Or at least something casual that isn't basically falling apart."  
  
"This is important ED. I don't know what Karkat's been through on this ship, I want to be like he how he remembers me, I want him to know I'm in the same situation and there for him. You can wear your damn enemy space suit if you want but I'm going in this."  
  
"Fine then, have it your way... whatever... " Eridan grumbled, talking off his spectacles and cleaning them carefully with a soft cloth.  
  
Sollux gazed at his reflection in the mirror, touching the yellow symbol printed on his shirt thoughtfully.   
  
"Sol... "Eridan spoke up behind him. "You had better be braced for this."   
  
"I need to see him. That's all there is to it."  
  
                                                                                                                                   ______  
  
Distantly, Sollux felt himself almost turning to the guard and telling him that they had been brought to the wrong cell. Like a defensive reflex action. But there was no such questioning remark from Eridan stood silently beside him, and Sollux knew deep down that there was no mistake.  
  
He was actually looking at Karkat Vantas.  
  
"KK..." he stepped dizzily forward, leaving Eridan stood rigidly beside the guard, approaching the small dark shape sprawled on the floor. "KK... Karkat... Wake up." He knelt beside him, grasping the troll under his arms and puling him upright with surprising ease. Karkat was significantly  shorter than Sollux but had always been more heavily set and being able to move him, before he saw how much thinner Karkat's face had become, was an indication that he must have lost a lot of weight. Sollux remembered how badly he himself had been fed before he was released into Eridan's care.   
  
His prison overalls were fresh and clean, as Karkat also appeared to be, but brushing back his wildly overgrown black hair Sollux winced at the sight of one of his eyes,   
blackened and swollen shut, and also his bruised and split lips. Clean of blood, but fresh and swelled enough to be recent. He touched the metal ring of the collar around Karkat's neck, identical to his own, noticing the marks on his skin where it had been pulled tight as well as other scratches and teeth marks.   
  
"KK... Wake up... Please..." Sollux pulled the pathetic limp body close to his, and cradled his head to his chest, his heart and stomach clenching as his fingers ran through his thick hair, missing something obvious that should have been there but was gone. And then he felt it, the hard, flat disc close to the roots of his hair that could only be the base of one of his horns. Cruelly sawn off. Tears blurring his eyes, Sollux felt for the other and found it also missing. As if he wasn’t dealt a bad enough hand in life having been hatched with such small and nubby horns in the first place, now they were gone completely. A clear indication that he wasn’t even been treated as a troll anymore. There wasn’t anything more emasculating that could have been done to him short of mutilating his genitals and that thought almost made Sollux puke.   
  
"KK..." Sollux shook him as hard as he dared.  
  
"Is he sedated?" Eridan asked hollowly, finally finding his voice.  
  
"Not that I've been made aware of, he was just brought in unconscious". The guard responded dismissively.   
  
"Why?"  
  
The guard only shrugged.  
  
When Karkat started to stir weakly in his arms Sollux almost laughed out loud. One bloodshot eye opened, closed again, and then reopened a little wider on focusing on the face staring down from above. His dry lips moved with difficulty.  
  
"Fuck... Am I dead? Karkat rasped. This time Sollux did laugh.  
  
"It's okay KK, I'm really here." Sollux said softly to him.   
  
"Great... then... we're both fucked."  
  
                                                                                                                                              ________  
  
Sollux helped Karkat limp to the cell bed. He stifled a cry of pain at almost every step and it broke Sollux's heart at how he was trying to hide the extent of his injuries. Eridan brought over a paper cup of water, handing it to Sollux and standing around looking awkward while he helped Karkat to drink it. It restored him somewhat.   
  
"So... this is my accommodation downgrade. Doesn’t look... all that... different." Sollux followed his gaze around the four bare grey walls, remembering how he had been shut within similar confinement for weeks. Then he thought of his current living arrangement and felt a cold twinge of guilt. Then he thought of Eridan's other apartment and just became annoyed. He tried to chase his negativity away.  
  
"This is practically the same block I'm in KK. I'm gonna watch out for you as much as I can." he soothed.  
  
"Don't get... yourself in trouble... because of me." Karkat tried to lie down as gently as he could on the bed, wincing a couple of times.  
  
"KK shut the fuck up. I'm not going to abandon you."  
  
"Don't hold out hope... for too much." Karkat's good eye was drooping closed. He looked shattered. And he sounded like he had just about given up on himself. Karkat. Out of all of them he would have been the one to go down screaming, swearing, fighting. That's probably what he expected when he had jumped to the aid of that jadeblood. What he hadn't reckoned for was a lingering, painful descent into hopelessness without even the promise of death's release. Sollux felt his own fragile resolve become deeply shaken.  
  
"KK... Be my Moirail." he blurted out.  
  
Karkat opened his eye again and gazed at him mirthlessly. "I thought... you hated me... you dick."   
  
"I'm sure the feeling is fucking mutual but we don't have a lot of choice here. I'm not letting you go and you sure as fuck aren’t going to let me go. You've always been my best friend Karkat. There's no better time to make it official."  
  
Karkat's lips split into the barest hint of a smile.  
  
"Fine then... You pushy douchebag." He sighed and let his eye slip shut again. "Moirails."  
  
                                                                                                                           __________  
  
Eridan trailed silently behind Sollux as they returned to their apartment. It became apparent after they were in for a few minutes that he was agitated. He opened the refrigerator, poked around in it aimlessly, came away with nothing. He picked through the few books on the single shelf, selected one, and sat down next to Sollux on the sofa while the land troll gazed vacantly at his hands clasped together in his lap. He flipped back and forth through random pages, slyly watching Sollux from the corners of his glasses.   
  
"Sol, I think we should go up to my quarters tonight. You hardly have any decent food in and there's nothing to do here. We could watch a movie or two on my entertainment screen."  
  
"I'm not in the mood for any movies ED and to be honest I'd rather stay here."  
  
"But Sol, it's more comfortable in my place." Eridan started to pout. "Okay, it’s fine if you don't want to do anything else, we can just go to bed."  
  
"ED please, just shut up. It's bad enough that I feel like my heart has been put through a fucking blender without you whining away like a spoilt wiggler. I want to be here tonight, near KK."   
  
Eridan coloured, making it even more obvious that he was upset.  
  
"Oh, your new Moirail? Are you really serious about that Sol."  
  
"Dead fucking serious" Sollux's tone became defensive. "You saw the state he's in as clearly as I did and he fucking needs me, he's got no one else. We're in the same boat and we need each other to get through this."  
  
"And so where does the poor Matesprit fit into this new arrangement which you saw fit to set up without consulting me first?" Eridan needled petulantly.  
  
"Eridan, you don't fucking dictate to me how I choose to fill my fucking quadrants. Try and have some fucking pity for the few individuals you aren’t trying to screw every now and again!"  
  
Eridan shut the book he was holding with a hard snap and got to his feet.   
  
"Sollux I want you in that fuckin bed right now."  
  
"Not happening" Sollux bristled back. "Had enough of you tonight ED, I'm sleeping on this sofa alone. You can sleep here, or in your apartment, or on the fifth fucking moon in the furthest reach for all I care. "  
  
The two stared each other down hotly. Sollux knew that if he so wanted, Eridan could have his way. He could almost see Eridan's fingers twitching by his left suit pocket, wanting to use the tazer and knowing that it would all but shatter the delicate truce they had had going for the last couple of weeks, that Sollux would lose the small amount of respect he had grudgingly afforded Eridan in just one press of a button. But was Eridan too angry to swallow his pride and back down, too jealous to lay off and give Sollux some badly needed space…  
  
"FINE THEN" Eridan finally shouted shrilly. "Do what you fucking want tonight, but I won't stand for this insubordination again Sol. Next time you do what I say when I say or I'll make you do it. END OF!" He turned on his heel in a flamboyant swirl of ridiculous purple cape, strode to the door, let himself out and slammed it hard.   
  
Sollux lowered his face into his hands and choked back the urge to scream his vexation.  
  
*****  
  



	4. Tension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Additional warning for a violent non-con/rape scene  
> Contains a 18+ artwork sketch (xeno anatomy)

Eridan didn't return that night or indeed the next morning. Sollux slept uncomfortably on the sofa for a few hours, then relented and went through to the respitblock where he managed to get a little more rest. He hoped Karkat was coping alright. He wondered what his chances were of getting clearance to see him later on without Eridan to back him up. It was worth a try, the worst thing that could happen was being turned away, and then Sollux would be forced to go grovelling on his belly like a grub to Eridan, sleaze onto him like a cheap whore, get fucked, and finally be rewarded with a visit to see his friend.     
  
He wondered whether to tell Karkat about his weird Matespritship with Eridan. He guessed he would pretty much have to admit to it to explain how he was walking around freely and not confined to a cell like the rest of the captive Alternians.  
  
When he felt fairly sure Eridan wouldn’t reappear until after his working day was through, Sollux ate, changed his clothes, and set out for the block Karkat was in. He would have tried to smuggle in a little food for the undernourished troll but he needed to see if he could even get to him first. As luck would have it, the same guard was posted in the corridor that had supervised them the day before and he nodded a cordial greeting to the familiar scrawny yellowblood as he approached.  
  
"Hey... Feel free to tell me to get lost if its not convenient right now but... Is it possible I could see my friend again for just a short while? Please?" he asked as meekly as he could manage.  
  
The guard looked down at him curiously.  
  
"Stand still and hold your arms out."  
  
Sollux swallowed hard and did as directed. The guard patted him down, obviously checking he wasn't tying to smuggle anything in. Bringing food wouldn’t have been a good idea most likely. Once satisfied, the guard moved to the correct door, glanced through the window panel and then pressed the correct fob to the electronic lock.  
  
"You can have thirty minutes" he rumbled.  
  
Sollux walked over quietly and peered into the room before stepping in, worried somehow that he might be being deceived, but Karkat was there, still on the bed that they had left him on the day before. He at least had a blanket tucked around him now. Sollux started with fright as the door closed heavily behind him and was relocked.    
  
Sollux knelt beside the bed and reached out to touch Karkat's neck, relieved to find the steady beat of his pulse. His eyes flickered open despite the lightness of Sollux's touch.  
  
"I just can't get rid of you... Can I?" he whispered.  
  
"Not on your fucking life."  
  
                                                                                                 ______  
  
"I don’t have long" Sollux found the cup from before and filled it at the sink after helping Karkat sit up and making him as comfortable as he could with the thin sheets and pillows. He handed the cup to Karkat, watching with a little optimism as he drank unaided. He seemed stronger for the long bed rest.  
  
"It's enough to have you here." Karkat's eyes were brighter in the dimness of the room, less clouded with pain. He could open the swollen one again and it didn't seem like there was any permanent damage.  
  
Sollux suddenly felt ridiculously tight throated, and he swallowed with difficulty, feeling tears threatening already.  
  
"KK I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were here." his voice was so small and choked to his own ears. "If I had I would have tried anything, so much earlier... to help you."  
  
"Hey... I appreciate that you're... the original Cool Kid... There's practically shit all that Sollux Captor can't do..." The evenness of Karkat's tone put Sollux's to shame. "But you can't do everything... Smartass."  
  
Sollux managed a small grin. Still enough like his old self to make with the insults.  
  
"This thing... is bigger than the both of us." Karkat tried to reassure him.  
  
Sollux sat down carefully on the edge of the bed next to Karkat.  
  
"Feferi is dead" he said quietly.  
  
"Yeah... I knew that much before... I fucked up. It was all over Trollian. I tried to contact you. But you were already gone too."  
  
They fell silent for a few moments.  
  
"Anyway... what's the deal... with Eridan?"  
  
Sollux signed heavily.  
  
"He's actually done pretty well for himself out of this debacle, he's gotten a cushy gig as trainee crew... Fucking highbloods snapped him up. He's loving it as well, throwing his weight around and being thousands of times more insufferable than before."  
  
“His heart is... in the right place. He just doesn’t know how to use it... half the time." Karkat was so unusually lenient with Eridan's brattish behaviour, considering how in most other circumstances the tiniest irritation could send him off into an angry rant.  
  
Sollux's fingers reflexively dug into the mattress in irritation.  
  
"He left anything that was good in him far behind on Alternia after he got on this fuckin ship." he scowled, unable to check his bitter tone. "Being with his own kind has done nothing but bring out his true nature."  
  
Karkat looked up, surprised by Sollux's harsh tone. Sollux sighed again.  
  
"The reason I'm not locked in a cell like you is because that cocky fuckstick took personal ownership of me. He's completely delusional, thinks we're Matesprits, keeps me cooped up in his quarters and forces himself on me whenever his bulge is hard, and that’s far, far too often." Oddly it was only slightly embarrassing spilling his guts like this to Karkat. Back on Alternia when Karkat had hinted that Eridan was more than a tad flushed for Sollux, they had laughed and ribbed each other about it, joking how the pathetic seadweller didn’t have a hope in hell of ever finding a Matesprit and of course, it had been hugely amusing that Feferi had rejected Eridan only to wind up involved with Sollux. Double the insult, to be rejected by two quadrant interests who then ended up together.  
  
No wonder actually that Eridan was so shitty to him at times.  
  
"That... sounds like some kind of bad joke." Karkat said quietly. "Sorry Sollux, I just cant picture you letting him have his way like that."  
  
"Yeah, well I wouldn’t if it wasn’t for this." Sollux tapped his nails against his collar. "My fucking muzzle, makes me the perfect lapbeast. Can't use my psiionics, it keeps me stuck in one small access area of the ship, and the worst thing... Its got a tazer circuit embedded in it and Eridan's got the remote unit. He can paralyze me with the flick of a switch. Saying no, fighting him off... neither of those things are an option anymore."  
  
"That’s not on, not even for Eridan..." Karkat tailed off.  
  
"It's  been irritating but... tolerable. I've been more worried about you, since i found out you were here. I mean..." Sollux faltered "you don’t look so great right now".  
  
"Its nothing" Karkat said a bit too quickly and dismissively. Sollux didn’t like the response but he knew better than to press Karkat about anything he didn’t want to talk about.  
  
"We'll get through this... Somehow" and then he just couldn’t help leaning over to embrace Karkat. Sollux wasn’t usually big on physical expressions of sentimentality, but this felt natural and right, he needed to feel that Karkat was there and he needed Karkat to feel that he was real and solid and there for him. Karkat raised his sore arms to hold Sollux gingerly.  
  
The both flew apart when the door clanged open. The guard stood expectantly just outside.  
  
"I'd better get out promptly. Better chance of getting to see you again like this, just us two" Sollux stood.  
  
"It's a date" Karkat replied with a hint of his old sarcasm. Sollux smiled thinly, and turned to hurry out.  
  
                                                                                                                ______  
  
Still no Eridan when Sollux let himself quietly back in. Suited him just fine. He considered making up something to eat.  
  
                                                                                                                ______  
  
The ringleader of the group dragged him to his feet. The weight of the chains pulled horrifically on his thin limbs now. He stumbled reluctantly as he was pushed toward the bed, knowing exactly what was coming his way. It had happened before. Would probably happen again.  
  
"How about your favourite... little bit of Multicolour Special huh?"  
  
Karkat's scowl was feeble. His urge to fight and struggle, even if all it did was fuel their amusement... today there was none. He was this close to a transfer from maximum to low security, his first positive break in weeks. He didn’t particularly want to do anything that might fuck that up.  
  
Hating himself regardless, he crawled compliantly onto the edge of the bed and braced himself on his hands and knees. The guard's chuckle seared fresh humiliation into his battered sense of pride as his pants were slid down to his knees, but he steeled himself against the rough groping of his nether regions.  
  
He still shrieked with agony at the first tearing penetration of the adult troll's bulge into his dry, already abused nook. His body jerked away on pure, pained survival instinct but large hands gripped his hips and pulled him back hard, the second thrust achieving the full agonising insertion of the long, thick length into his smaller body.  
  
"Good boy" the guard soothed in a mocking hiss as he felt the mutant blood tremble in his grip. When he slid out again, his bulge was streaked with vivid red but this didn’t raise even a ounce of concern as he ploughed back in again. The other trolls laughed and jeered as their superior held the prisoner down and fucked him hard, deeply. Red lines began to track down his cheeks to match those running down his thighs even though very little sound or sign of struggle escaped from him.  
  
The guard growled through clenched teeth as his pailed. His deep blue genetic material gushed into and overflowed Karkat's nook. He pulled out with a satisfied smirk.  
  
"Hornless little fuckbucket's warmed up and ready to go now, he's all yours". He gestured mirthfully to the others.  
  
The next one went in easier now that he was looser and slick, but each of the full grown males were fearfully endowed. Lighter blue cut through the dark drying stains on Karkat’s skin as the second guard pumped his load into him. Followed by dark blue again, followed by teal. The last to go in decided to buck the trend and shortly before pailing, grabbed the back of Karkat's head by a handful of his hair, pulled him around to face him and pushed his throbbing, dripping bulge past Karkat's cracked lips and finishing off by filling the spluttering troll's mouth and throat. This was met with an amused and appreciative round of cheering and applause. Karkat lowered himself to the bed gently when released, coughing softly, as carefully as he could not to aggravate his injuries, his soreness. All five of them had screwed him, one after he other, and now he wanted nothing more than to lie very still for a long time.  
  
The head guard came back to the fore after merely spectating for a while, pulling a small flick knife from his belt. Karkat shivered with renewed dread as his already tattered clothing was pulled tight and the knife slid through the thin fabric, cutting it away from him, his pants and the thin shirt removed. He hardly felt any surprise when a cut section of shirt was twisted into a thick rope and pulled roughly between his lips, tied behind his head tightly.  
  
The superior sat astride the bed, pulled his thin naked victim close to him. He pushed thick fingers inside, stirred the sticky multicoloured mess of ejaculate while Karkat squeezed his eyes closed and shuddered. He could  feel the troll's bulge swell warmly behind him even through his uniform, felt it alongside his own cold dread that they still weren’t done yet.  
  
"Poor sticky little trash blood" he cooed "so wet and still not pailed yet. Cant let you go unsatisfied... " He freed his bulge again from his pants, pulled Karkat closer to his chest and slid it in-between his blue stained thighs.  
  
Karkat winced as he entered again through all the sludge already coating his nook. He thrust a few times, slowly and lazily, then withdrew and took hold of Karkat’s thighs, lifting and spreading them wider, pulling him closer as he shifted, spreading the mushy mix of blues around before sliding firmly into the tight entrance to Karkat's waste chute.  
  
His scream would most likely have been heard the whole length of the solitary confinement block had he not been gagged. The guard held him close as he fought to get free, grinning with amusement. One of the watching  group became too heated by the sight and was soon on the bed with them, struggling to quickly extract his throbbing bulge and stuff it into that ruined nook once again. The guard bit down into the juncture between Karkat's neck and shoulder, sharp teeth piercing his skin cleanly and deeply, letting his despised mutant blood flow free. The entrances to his body stretched unbearably wide, his limbs bent unnaturally until his joints shrieked... Was it even possible to be in so much pain, in so many places, and not be dying from it...

  
  
His body was buffeted brutally between the two of them as they thrust. The pressure and fullness in his groin had managed to partially push out his own bulge, although it only poked flaccidly from its sheath. The whole group mocked the pathetic sight of it. Someone clipped him hard across the face and stars burst across his vision on that side, making him feel dizzy and nauseous.  
  
And now fingers were tightening round his throat, closing off his windpipe, and the laughing and jeering and panting becoming quieter and more distant. Maybe he wasn’t getting that transfer after all.  
  
But at this point, death would be fine too.  
  
                                                                                                 _____  
  
"Sol. Sol, wake up".  
  
Sollux opened his eyes blearily. The loungeblock came into view and also Eridan, leaning over him. He was slouched on the sofa where he must have nodded off earlier, still tired from his unsettled night.  
  
"Oh... Hey ED." He muttered, rubbing at his eyes.  
  
"What are you still doing here?" Eridan asked. The question wasn’t accusatory or anything though, he didn’t sound angry despite his raging hissy fit the night before.  
  
"I didn’t sleep so well last night. I keep nodding off wherever I stop still for a few minutes."  
  
Eridan actually looked sympathetic.  
  
"Sol please let me take you to my room for at least a night, away from this dingy place. You just need a good meal, a hot bath, soft bed. I'll make you feel better." he pleaded.  
  
"I don't like being away from KK."  
  
"Well.... If I get a visit arranged right now, then will you come with me?"  
  
Sollux immediately checked himself as he opened his mouth to respond. If he said yes, and the same guard was there, Eridan would find out that he had already been once today and somehow, considering the previous night's overreaction, that felt like walking into a terrible mistake. It would look like he had purposely gone behind his back. If he said no... Would Eridan be suspicious that for all his talk about staying close to KK he didn't actually want to see him? He couldn't hesitate for long.  
  
"He was really wrecked yesterday, he'll probably be asleep as long as they let him rest properly." Sollux lied as convincingly as he could manage. "I could tell yesterday he hated us seeing him like that, maybe I should just leave it until tomorrow."  
  
As expected, Eridan looked somewhat surprised. But not for long as he resumed his tack of further harassment.  
  
"Well in that case you've got no further excuse to stall us here any longer. I'm takin you to the upper level with me Sol."  
  
He couldn’t object. How could he be of any help to Karkat if he constantly disobeyed Eridan and started having his privileges revoked. It made him sick to think of returning to that gaudy, opulent suite while his moirail shivered and starved in a dank cell but for now, it was all he could do.  
  
  
  
*******


	5. Examination

  
Sollux lay on his back amongst the thick, soft bed covers with Eridan latched on beside him like a limpet. The mix of yellow and purple slime spread across their skin was chilling rapidly and becoming unpleasantly tacky as their bodies cooled and breathing slowed, but neither was significantly bothered enough by it to get cleaned up. Preoccupation was heavy in the air. Eridan watched Sollux stare at the elaborate dark framed chandelier hanging elegantly from the respitblock ceiling.   
  
"You're still thinking about Karkat aren’t you." It was more of a statement than a question.  
  
"This is making me feel guilty." Sollux said tonelessly. Eridan sighed with exasperation.  
  
"He’s in a better place now than he was, I can reassure you that much. There are more greenbloods workin in the low security block than there are in maximum security, he should be much safer and better kept."  
  
"I wish there was a way to get him out altogether."  
  
"Its not like I haven’t looked into it Sol but I can only do so much at my rank right now. You're just going to have to be patient."  
  
"Heh, you teaching me about the importance of patience." Sollux said humourlessly.  
  
"Yeah well... It wouldn’t hurt you to be more concerned about yourself every now and again" Eridan snapped tensely, sending a spike of dread through Sollux's heart.   
  
"You're still slated for more compatibility testing you know" Eridan continued thickly, like he had a lump in his throat. "You're still here to be tested, trained, programmed and wired into a fleet ship, you seem to be forgetting that in this fit of bleedin pity. Your time could be as short as his, maybe shorter."  
  
Sollux fell silent. Eridan snuggled claustrophobically closer to him when he just wanted to push everyone and everything away and run, go, escape.   
  
"The really tragic thing is that I'll just go wherever you go" Eridan whispered sullenly.  
  
______  
  
True to his word, Eridan took Sollux down the very next morning. It was his day off of duty anyway so there was no need to delay the visit until later. There was a different guard on this time, but he let them in without hesitation with Eridan's clearance. Karkat was still in the bed, apparently asleep. Sollux went to him quietly again, sat down gently and touched his neck, relieved to find his pulse beating warm and strong. He was nothing if not hardy. Again even that gentle contact was enough to wake Karkat, like even in sleep he was keenly attuned to things going on around him.  
  
"Hey Sollux" he said sleepily.   
  
"KK" Sollux responded amiably, unable to help the toothy grin that spread across his face. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Not great, better than I was though." He sat up in bed, much easier than before.  
  
"ED, go get some water." Sollux waved his hand at Eridan without looking in his direction and so missed the indignant scowl the highblood made at being so casually ordered around. Still, he brought the water over without a word. Sollux reached inside his baggy tee-shirt and brought out a small packaged grubloaf. He unwrapped it and put it into Karkat's thin hands. His eyes glinted faintly red at the gift.  
  
"Eat it now if you can, before they catch on" he said with almost a mischievous tone. Karkat grinned, and starting attacking the food.  
  
"Sol... Did you use the good meat?" Eridan started to moan, but his expression softened at the sight of Karkat so eagerly wolfing down the rich food. He moved to stand directly behind Sollux where he sat on the bed edge and squeezed his shoulder affectionately.  
  
"Hey fishfuck... Been a while since I last saw you." Karkat spoke through the last few mouthfuls.   
  
"You should check that foul mouth a yours, its gotten you in enough trouble already Kar" Eridan's tone was serious but not harsh.   
  
"I'll open my foul mouth to whoever I want" Karkat goaded him.  
  
"Yeah, go ahead and dismiss my advice if you want to" Eridan sniffed. "Done all I can for you."  
  
"ED's got a point this time KK." Sollux interrupted "If you can stomach a bit more being quiet and cooperative, we might be able to swing you a bit more freedom."  
  
"Well... If no one gives me a hard time... I wont give them a load of shit in response, but I'm not gonna be kissing any ass either." Karkat huffed. Then his tone softened. "Its actually a lot better here. I just mostly get left to myself."  
  
"You're looking far better, still rough as fuck though. I'm going to smuggle in whatever I can get away with to get you your strength back."  
  
"That means a lot to me Sollux. Eridan" He grudgingly acknowledged the help of the seadweller despite being annoyed at what Sollux has told him about their relationship. Highbloods were not his favourite trolls right now. Sollux grasped his hand and squeezed it between his.  
  
"Just keep hanging in there KK."  
  
_______  
  
Sollux visited Karkat whenever he could, with Eridan always in tow... Karkat was looking much better now, the smuggled food was helping him regain some weight and all the obvious injuries to his body were healing well, with the exception of his horns of course. Eridan watched them touch and talk and laugh with irritation. Sollux had never been that friendly with him. Still wasn’t. He preferred to be off doing his own thing whenever they weren’t screwing, or asleep. Ungrateful landcrawling sack of shit. After everything he'd done for him.   
  
Denied access to any electronic equipment, the pair of them were engaged in playing a card game together, which Eridan had huffily declined to join.  He loathed Sollux, his effortless coolness, his intelligence, the charisma that made him popular with everyone, that pulled Feferi away from Eridan and straight into his arms. Even Karkat, grouchy as he was, had immense resilience, a strong heart, could always be counted on to give advice or help you out of a jam. Without his blood advantage and the powerthirsty nature he inherited from it, Eridan would be a complete and total nobody loser, good for absolutely nothing. He was kinda aware at times that he was being a pissy, whiney, unnecessary drama machine but being aware of the fact didn’t help him to curb his bad attitude much, and he often felt his friends tolerated him rather than liked him. He just wasn’t so good at interacting with others.   
  
Eridan's personal communications device startled him when it went off suddenly. He pulled it from his pocket, scanned the brief message. It was Her Imperious Condescension... Unusual for her to call for him directly. Eridan's mouth went dry. It had to be something important.  
  
"Sol, I've got to go" he heard himself say distantly. "You can stay here until you want to leave, or are ordered to leave."  
  
Sollux squinted at his hand of cards, oblivious to Eridan's strained tone. "Sure thing ED."  
  
Eridan left to make his way to the throne room.  
  
_____  
  
Sollux was back in their quarters when Eridan finally returned, late in the day. He was actually already in bed, reading a book.  
  
"Hey." He greeted Eridan casually, not initially noticing how pale he was, until he got closer and it was obvious how sick he looked. "What's wrong."  
  
"Sollux... you... you have to go to a test session... tomorrow." Eridan looked nothing short of devastated. Sollux felt his chest tighten.   
  
"Really..." he said replied quietly. "It's just a test though right?   
  
"Yeah. It's a stressful one though I think. I might not be able to collect you on the same day, you might have to stay in a recovery cell afterwards." he twisted the edge of his cape between his elegant, ringed fingers. "Sol I'll go mad if have to spend more than a night without you."  
  
"Oh stop overreacting" Sollux chided, out loud to Eridan and also internally to himself as he felt a touch of rising panic at a test which might lay him out for a day or two.  
  
"I just cant fuckin think straight Sol, I need a bath. Please can you run one for me." He was suddenly off digging around in a cabinet in the food preparation area, finally coming out with a bottle of some liquor and pouring a generous measure into a glass tumbler. He took a hard gulp without bothering to offer Sol a drink. Sollux rolled his eyes at the dramatics but slouched off to do as he had been told. At least Eridan acting out was still a distraction from his increasing fear.  
  
The bath was mostly filled when Eridan reappeared. He placed a fresh drink on the side while he stripped out of his cape and uniform, folded and placed the items neatly before recovering the drink and climbing into the deep water. He stretched himself out in it, letting the water hold his weight gracefully, the glass still clasped in his hand. Sollux shut off the taps, and made to return to the respitblock. Offended, Eridan called out to him.  
  
"Sol, please come in with me for a while."  
  
Sollux exhaled loudly. "Only if you promise not to drown me."  
  
He stripped off the tee-shirt and boxer shorts and clambered in. The warm water should have been relaxing but it couldn’t thaw out the deep chill settling into his very veins. When Eridan drank, the glass chattered against his teeth, as though he were shivering. Or trembling.   
  
"You look like shit ED. Is there something more to this?"   
  
"Sollux, just sit with me and be quiet" Eridan almost snapped out.  
  
"Why did you get called in earlier?" Sollux held his ground. "Did they tell you more about this test? ED... ED... Fucking TALK TO ME."  
  
Raising his voice jarred Eridan into giving Sollux his full attention. His yellow eyes seemed a shade darker than usual, as though he was barely holding back a film of unshed violet tears.   
  
"Don’t make me tell you any more... for your sake more than mine."  
  
Sollux reached over and plucked the empty glass from Eridan's grip, chucking it carelessly across the room where it hit the floor and shattered. Eridan flinched at the sound.  
  
"I said... Tell me."   
  
Eridan swallowed loudly. "I’ve seen the Helmsman Sol, the Condesce took me there. And now I’m absolutely terrified... for you... Don’t make me tell you anymore..." The tears finally over spilled and tracked down his cheeks, and Sollux was at a loss for something to do or say. It was hard to see Eridan so upset on witnessing first hand Sollux's eventual fate. He partly wanted to know more out of morbid curiosity... but from  seeing Eridan breaking down he was finding himself more drawn to ignorance, if it meant he could have just a little more peace of mind in the time he had left. He sat mutely in the water, just watching Eridan cry for the both of them.  
  
When the flow had dried up and Eridan was merely down to making small, hiccupping hitches of breath, Sollux took him by the hand and lead him out of the bath, towelling him down gently before drying himself, and moving him into the respitblock. In bed he felt obliged to hold his cruel, abusive owner close in a bid to soothe him to sleep.  
  
Eridan had failed to erase the image from his mind with mere alcohol… He still saw everything clearly as the drink at least lured his exhausted body toward sleep. An adult troll, but so thin and wasted away he couldn’t have weighed much more than Eridan himself, suspended in such a tangle of tentacle-like wires... Or were they actually some kind of living tentacles, something more akin to plant roots? They encircled most of his body, supporting but trapping him and in places actually entering him, buried into his skin. There was no sign that he was ever removed from this small, cramped place, this   
confinement. The clear tubes going into him amongst the fuchsia coloured bonds stemmed from a rack of intravenous drip packets, as though the pathetic specimen didn’t even eat solid food anymore.   
  
"This is my ship's engine" She almost cooed. The Condesce stroked his thin cheek affectionately, and the contact actually stirred him to move when Eridan was beginning to think he was merely looking at a corpse. It took every inch of willpower not to throw up on the spot when he opened his eyes. Vacant, and also mismatched eyes. Red and blue. Red and blue eyes and, now that he thought about, a striking facial resemblance.   
  
"Please... Don’t take him away from me..." Eridan had whispered in a tiny, cracked voice.  
  
________  
  
Eridan was a wreck in the morning. If the circumstances weren’t so grave Sollux would have been mocking him for being a complete lightweight with alcohol. But neither of them were in any mind to joke around, far from it. Eridan wasn’t even dressed, just wandering around aimlessly in a dressing gown when two adult crew members arrived promptly on the hour to take Sollux away. He watched helplessly as they cuffed his Matesprit's wrists together.   
  
"ED, just fucking chill out okay? I'll see you later, right?" Sollux tried to sound at least a hundred percent more confident than he felt.   
  
"Right..." Eridan repeated hollowly as Sollux was escorted away.  
  
_______  
  
He recognised the medical wing from the last time he was there, some weeks or maybe even months ago now. The room they entered already had three other trolls inside, dressed in white uniforms as opposed to the black ones seen generally  around the ship, marking them out as medical personnel. The guards unlocked his cuffs and left him.   
  
"How are you feeling today, Sollux Captor?" One of the females asked in a gesture of pleasantness even though her tone was somewhat clinical and emotionless.   
  
"Fine, I guess..." Sollux answered.  
  
"Excellent. Please take off your clothes for me".  
  
"Ugh... Do I have to..." Sollux cringed.  
  
"Yes". The clipped reply came back.  
  
Sollux kicked off his shoes, stripped out of his shirt and pants with resignment. When fully naked the female troll took his temperature, his heart rate, and looked him over for any signs of injury or sickness. Satisfied he was in good health, she nodded to another troll holding an electronic clipboard.    
  
"Onto the table and lie down please, Sollux Captor".  
  
"Just Sollux is fine..." he muttered petulantly as he got on. They raised the table higher once he was lay down so they could reach him easily. Strong fabric restraints were passed over his torso and buckled up, also over his arms and legs, in addition to four strong metal cuffs that were locked over just his ankles and wrists. They weren’t stupid then. Sollux would be able to tear through the fabric just fine if he had use of his psiionics, but metal posed more of a challenge.  
  
"Just a sharp pinch" the other female said softly as she pushed the needle she had been preparing into a vein in one of his restrained arms and injected an unpleasantly cold syringeful of liquid.   
  
He was soon feeling sleepy, his limbs heavy and probably impossible to move even if he weren’t strapped down. The third troll, a male, wheeled a mobile computer terminal closer to the stretcher table, and continued to tap at the keyboard as the two females began to gather bunches of cabling that seemed to be attached to it. The next few minutes were taken up by them fixing the cables to his body, mostly by sensor pads against his skin but he still felt the thin spike of pain whenever a needle probe was inserted.   
  
"Security on standby" he heard the male intone distantly, as a female pressed something to his neck, and with a couple of electronic beeps, the electric lock on his collar clicked open and he felt the now familiar weight of it leave him.   
  
This was good for some reason... but he couldn’t quite grasp why. He gazed at her blearily, his vision becoming misty. She looked at him for a moment or two, then produced a dropper and squeezed liquid into his eyes until his vision cleared again. Then she carefully closed his eyelids and taped them shut.  
  
"He's under".  
  
"Affirmative. Time is 22:00 hours, exactly. Commencing simulation program."  
  
*******


	6. Recovery

 

  
Eridan felt too ill to report to his training post.  After he saw Sollux off with a heavy heart he dropped the gown to the floor and wandered back into the respitblock, crawling back into bed and pulling the covers over his head. It was an immediate mistake as he could faintly smell the scent of Sollux on the bed sheets around him. He bit back the urge to cry, flinging the sheets off and instead striding into the bathroom. He started to fill the bath tub, hoping that he might find more peace in water.  
  
______  
  
In the prison block, Karkat obediently sucked on the bulge thrust into his mouth as the troll behind steadily fucked him. Seemed that a couple of his friends from maximum security had really missed having him around. But fortunately all that occupied his mind was the goal of earning a further access privilege for good behaviour.  
  
________  
  
"Sollux Captor. Sollux Captor, wake up."  
  
Sollux tried to open his eyes as the voice kept repeating itself, distantly. He felt so far away, so light, almost insubstantial. Like a ghost. He felt pressure somewhere on his body, very gentle pressure, just a light squeeze. On his hand maybe. Was someone squeezing his hand...  
  
He finally managed to pry his eyes open to the bright light of the medical bay. And the brilliant jade green eyes of the female troll gazing down at him. His hand must be in hers. He tried to lick his lips but his mouth was so dry. The pressure left his hand and then he felt the press of wet material to his lips, and he latched onto it, sucking at the moisture.  
  
"Take it easy, Sollux" Her voice was soft, soothing, like honey to his scorched senses. She took the napkin from him, wet it from the cool glass of water and him suck at it again. He felt like such a wiggler as he began to come to his senses, feeling the light, floating sensation dissipate as he sank back into the familiar weight of his own body. A body that seemed to be growing increasingly uncomfortable. A sensation that started to register as pain.   
  
"Where... am I?" he croaked.   
  
"In the medical wing, in the recovery suite" that soothing voice replied.   
  
"What... am I doing.. here..." Sollux tried to blink away the dryness from his eyes, then raised a hand to rub them and immediately cried out in agony as pain ripped through the very nerves of his arm.  
  
"Try not to move." the jadeblood urged him gently. "Your body has been under a lot of stress. You've been unconscious for nearly two days and we had to wake you but you will be in a lot of pain. I will try to find the best dosage of medication to help you through it."  
  
"Shit." Sollux cursed through his teeth. The jadeblood sat just to his side, and next to her he could see IV drip bags wired to his other arm, and a small monitor that was tracking his vitals. He was still naked, as he could see clearly down the length of his body from the slight incline of the pillows behind him supporting his back and head. Two tubes snaked out of his sheath and he blushed furiously when he noticed them. Even more trolls who had seen his awful mutant junk, females at that. Just great.  
  
"Would you like to rest more or should I summon your Matesprit, he asked to be called the moment you regained consciousness."  
  
Sollux would have much preferred to have Karkat visit but that seemed unlikely. He sighed, resigned to the reality that he would have to put up with Eridan fussing away at him.  
  
"Yeah, call him, might as well get it over with."  
  
______  
  
The jadeblood nurse aided him in him shifting his stiff, aching body a little, helped him drink a bit more from the glass, and sponge bathed his face and body, ran a brush through his hair, made him a little more presentable. She drew a thin bed sheet over his lower half to restore a bit of his modesty.  
  
The door practically flew open, announcing Eridan's theatrical appearance as he swept in like a purple hurricane.   
  
"Woah woah woah" Sollux cried out weakly as he watched Eridan advance with his arms outstretched to grab him. "I'm in delicate shape ED, don't be rough."  
  
"Sol." he almost whined, having to satisfy his need to touch Sollux by gently grasping his hand instead. "Thank God you're awake, I swear I've barely slept a wink while you've been gone. I've done nothing but worry myself sick".  
  
"ED I'm fine, see." Sollux lied, biting back the discomfort he felt from merely having his hand touched. The jadeblood smiled a little at his bravery, knowing the extent of the pain he was really in. She looked up and past Sollux and Eridan as there was more movement at the door.   
  
Sollux's eyes widened as Karkat stepped apprehensively into the room, closely shadowed by one of the prison block guards. He was shackled and looked somewhat blinded by the white brilliance of the room after knowing nothing but dark cell walls for so long.   
  
"KK... You too..."  
  
"Yeah, guess so." Karkat moved to stand beside Eridan. "I'll admit to being kinda worried about you as well, so Eridan let me tag along."  
  
"Fuck... I’m so glad to see you guys. I cant believe... I’ve been asleep so long. I mean... what the fuck am I even doing here..." Sollux said quietly and carefully. Eridan shot the nurse a worried look.  
  
"Its a touch of amnesia, his memory will come back to him. We expected the psychological strain to affect his short term recall a little." she assured them.  
  
"You were brought up for an extensive test of your psychic abilities, against a test simulation of a fleet ship." Eridan explained. "Its very intense and exhausting for a fully grown adult and you're barely nine sweeps old, it just completely laid you out."  
  
"Oh... right." There was something familiar about all this, he vaguely remembered Eridan freaking about something the last time he saw him. His gaze settled on Karkat.  
  
"KK I didn’t mean to just abandon you like that, shit happened so quick I didn’t have time to explain where I was going." he said apologetically. Karkat shook his head.  
  
"Eridan told me later the same day you came up here, so I knew where you were. I've just been worried for you."  
  
"Well, I'm still here to get in the way a little bit longer" he managed to grin a little, and the whole group felt a little more relaxed and positive.  
  
"How  much longer does he need to stay in here?". Eridan asked.  
  
"It would be best to monitor him for at least a couple more days to ensure he hasn't suffered any brain damage from the intensity of the testing, but all signs so far are very positive. If he agrees to rest properly we can release him with oral medication to manage any residual pain."  
  
"That sounds wonderful" Eridan gushed. "I'll have him brought directly to my quarters."  
  
"ED if I get out early I'm going back down to the prison block. If you keep me in your apartment I can't see KK."  
  
"Oh" Eridan looked a bit crestfallen. "Yes, I suppose I wont be able to get clearance for a lowblood to visit you there, sorry Kar..." He glanced apologetically sideways but Karkat merely waved his hand at him in a dismissive gesture.  
  
"I only want the arrangement that's best suited to Sollux making a fast and full recovery." he responded. Sollux tried to swallow the lump forming in his throat at his feelings of affection towards Karkat's selflessness.  
  
"Ideally he should be kept warm, comfortable and well fed." the jadeblood said.  
  
"It's only a few more days Sollux, you should stay with Eridan, you'll recover quicker and then we can get back to our visit schedule." Karkat reassured him.  
  
"Well, if you're gonna be like that..." Sollux mock-huffed, but then softened his tone "Thanks KK, I'll get back as soon as I possibly can."  
  
"Okay you boys, that's long enough" the nurse said softly. "I need to adjust Sollux's medication and he needs to rest more, you can see him again tomorrow."  
  
"Peace out bro" Karkat grinned, and Sollux grinned in return.  
  
"I'll be back tomorrow to see you Sol. Love you". Eridan choked out, and Sollux winced knowing that Karkat had heard what he said and was probably laughing away inside.  
  
When they had left, the nurse lowered his backrest and made him more comfortable to sleep.   
  
"Its sweet that you hide your pain but I'm still going to increase your painkiller dosage" she said fondly, adjusting his drip. Sollux smiled back. It was impossible to dislike a jadeblood, they were just so naturally kind and considerate. She reminded him of Kanaya.   
  
"Thanks..." he said gratefully, closing his eyes.  
  
_______  
  
Sollux spent three more days in the recovery room. Eridan visited him every evening at the same hour on the dot. He spoke of how he was trying to raise a case to allow Karkat short periods out of his cell every week to visit the recreation room, so that he and Sollux could at least play some video games or watch movies together. Sollux touched his hand and tried to express his appreciation as eloquently as he could to the beaming seatroll.  
  
On the day of his release he was eating solid food again and his body was recovered enough for him to stand, and walk short distances slowly and carefully. He was put into a wheelchair and taken up to the highblood quarters by a blueblood, the lowest caste allowed into that exclusive wing to carry out ship duties. Other castes only had clearance if they were quadranted to a highblood, but amongst the adults on the ship the highbloods mostly engaged in partnership with other highbloods. The trolls they passed in the corridor eyed Sollux disapprovingly but silently.   
  
In his apartment Eridan helped Sollux into bed. He brought a glass of water so Sollux could take his painkillers and made him comfortable. Pulling a small table over to the bedside, he placed a compact portable screen and disc player on it.  
  
"Are you going to be able to get to the ablutionblock alright by yourself." he fretted.  
  
"I'll be fine ED, stop flapping." Sollux huffed at him, looking forward already to the hours that Eridan would be out on duty. "How is Karkat, have you checked on him recently?"  
  
"He's absolutely fine" Eridan lied. He hadn't actually seen Karkat since the visit, but he was sure everything was okay. All his attention was focused raptly on Sollux's condition.  "You know where everythin is, just try to stay in bed though. I've got to lock you in while I’m out but I doubt you would be dumb enough to set foot outside, if you know what’s good for you.."  
  
"Not a problem" Sollux settled back into the pillows and closed his eyes. Eridan pressed a kiss against his cheek.   
  
"Yes, try to sleep. Ill be back in a few hours" he smoothed Sollux's hair between his fingers, then quietly rose to leave. Sollux opened his eyes and reached over to flip open the disc player as soon as he heard the door lock.  
  
_______  
  
A week later, Sollux was well enough to walk beside Eridan as they returned to their prison block quarters. Eridan had been maddeningly saccharine all throughout his stay,  suffocatingly attentive, taking his role of home nursing Sollux far too seriously. After hours and hours of constant coddling, being asked if he needed help to get to the bathroom, or more drinks or more food, different movies or another gentle walk around the room to keep mobile... Sollux was yearning for the freedom and solitude of his old roaming area.   
  
Sollux feined exhaustion from the walk although in truth he felt fine, and clambered directly into bed. Predictably, Eridan wasn’t long in undressing and joining him. Sollux pretended to be dozing off as Eridan cuddled closer to him, tracing his fingertips gently over Sollux' ribs, and down over the sharp protrusion of his hipbone.   
  
"Sol... I could give you a welcome back present." he murmured in a low, seductive tone. "Let me play with you, its been over two weeks..."  
  
"ED... Maybe tomorrow." Sollux kept his eyes closed. "I'm shattered.".  
  
"Oh... Okay then". Eridan sounded dejected, but Sollux signed with relief inside. If only it could always be this easy to say no to Eridan.  
  
_________  
  
Barely a day after he was back, a smug and satisfied Eridan lead Sollux down the hall to the recreation room. Stepping inside,  he found Karkat already rummaging through the movie discs by the entertainment screen.  
  
"KK..."  
  
"Sollux?" Karkat turned around abruptly, a wide toothy grin splitting his face. "Fucking... wow, you a look a zillion times better than when I last saw you!" he sprang to his feet, hurried towards his friend, stopping just short of barrelling into him. "Are you... is everything healed up?". He hands hovered just slightly away from his sides, as though he had wanted to touch Sollux but didn’t know if he could. Without saying a word, Sollux reached out and pulled him into the embrace he was afraid to give.   
  
The two hour session they were granted, three times a week, was more than they could have ever hoped for. Sollux didn’t even care that he had already been through the films in the small collection once or twice over each, what mattered was sitting and watching them with Karkat. He made up two portions of puree and sauce and waited impatiently outside the rec room door for Karkat to be escorted over. He couldn’t let himself in anymore, his access to the room had been cancelled so that he and Karkat could be locked in together, and checked in on periodically through the session by the duty guard doing his rounds. Once inside, they were left uninterrupted to their movies, games and snacks. For the first two weeks, it made them very happy, to forget their respective woes in each others company. But one afternoon Karkat was brought in limping and subdued.  
  
"KK... " Sollux started to ask as his Moirail sat down carefully on the battered rec room sofa, but Karkat waved at him dismissively.   
  
"I’m fine" he said in the tone that Sollux always recognised as an indication of exactly the opposite being the case.  
  
"It’s that scumbag head guard from maximum security again, isn’t it." Sollux grumbled with irritation. "Are they really so starved for poor unfortunate fucks to torture up there that they have to keep coming after you?"  
  
"Its nothing Sollux, don’t try to stir up any trouble. They might revoke these visits. I couldn’t handle being alone again." Karkat said in a low, miserable tone.  
  
"KK I hate seeing you like this, you never used to back down from a fight, no matter what the odds."  
  
"He just roughs me up a bit." Karkat looked away. "He likes to see my disgusting mutant  blood colour, and tell me constantly what a freakish abomination I am. How I'm barely a member of the great troll race and should have been culled sweeps ago. "  
  
Sollux bared his fangs in anger.  
  
"I could handle anything they dished out to me, before. Well, until he cut off my horns anyway. Now I don’t feel a real member of the species, inside or out."  
  
Sollux's anguish for his friend made his blood boil, his trapped psiionics feeling like they were liquefying his insides.   
  
"They're wrong. We are part of the species. You aren’t a toy for their twisted amusement, and I’m not a mere spare fucking engine part."   
  
Karkat stared at Sollux, surprised by his outburst, but then dropped his gaze down to his trembling  hands.  
  
"I want out of here KK, I want out of this…" Sollux pulled miserably at his metal collar. "It’s like I’m slowly dying inside and I know you feel it too. I just feel so helpless that we cant do anything to help ourselves. I'm living in near constant fear of the next time I'm dragged in for testing, I've never known pain like it."  
  
Karkat rubbed his shoulder as comfortingly as he could. "I know it’s rough, I know where you're coming from. More so than you think."  
  
"KK..." Sollux moved to squeeze Karkat's shoulder in return but somehow his hand   
drifted towards his chest and settled there instead. He could feel the beat of his heart, warm and strong.   
  
"Sol... " Karkat started to ask, but before he even knew he'd moved Sollux had leaned in and pressed his lips against Karkat's open mouth. The smaller troll's eyes widened with surprise. Sollux backed off, uncertainty and shock that he'd made such a bold move written all over his face. They stared at each other with confusion for a few moments, before moving in and tentatively kissing again. Karkat's lips were soft and warm, he was safe and caring and so, so strong, and Sollux thought... no, he knew... that he was flushed for his friend.   
  
"KK... Please tell me I’m not making an embarrassing twit of myself right now."  
  
"No, you aren’t" Karkat whispered.  
  
It all happened so fast. Locked together in the most urgent and sloppiest of makeouts, they wrestled on the worn, creaking sofa, embracing, touching, pulling at each others clothes, gasping with hot, flushed arousal. Karkat moaned terrifyingly loudly when Sollux accidentally nudged him in the crotch with his knee, and clapped a frightened hand over his own mouth. Sollux barely noticed the noise they were making, gripping the waistband of Karkat's ragged pants and dragging them urgently down his hips, freeing his plump, heated erection. He couldn’t help but smile as he leaned in and closed his lips around it's slightly short length but pleasing girth, amusingly in keeping with Karkat's general body shape.   
  
"Ahhhh Sollux... Shit.... Fuck..." Karkat cursed colourfully at the sensation of Sollux in his lap, his bulge deep inside Sollux's warm, wet mouth, teasing his flesh with tickling strokes of his tongue. Sollux reached back to drag down his own trousers, pulling out his own hard, dripping bulges and blushing furiously as he guided Karkat's fingers to close around them.   
  
"Oh shit Sollux, you fucking freak, you really do have two of them" and then Karkat was laughing uproariously, so genuinely, and Sollux felt just overwhelming love and desire for him.  He let Karkat's bulge slip free of his mouth, leaving a pale red smear down his chin, and locked lips with Karkat again as he eased himself in-between his legs, pushing him backwards on the tattered couch. His bulges pressed tauntingly against the heated flesh around the smaller troll's nook, but suddenly Karkat stiffened in his embrace, his gleeful expression turning apprehensive.   
  
"Sol, kinda… be gentle, if you can". He pleaded in a small voice.   
  
"I'm not some kind of ruthless destroyer of virginities  KK, I'll be careful."  
  
"It's not that..." Karkat trailed off, seeing that he was beginning to confuse Sollux and ruin the mood. To recover the uncertainty he'd caused he opened his legs wider and kissed Sollux again deeply. Gripping his awkward twin bulges together in his free hand, Sollux guided them as slid them together into Karkat's nook.   
  
Karkat cried out, mostly in pain to his own dismay. Sollux froze, not sure exactly where he was going wrong as Karkat felt perfectly ready, loosened and slick with arousal and he had slid in easily but somehow still hurt him.   
  
"Keep going" Karkat growled, biting his lip and gripping Sollux's arms hard enough to leave indents with his nails. Sollux withdrew a little, gently and smoothly sliding forward and back again, but Karkat's body was tensing up and Sollux could tell that he was still causing Karkat pain instead of enjoyment. When he noticed his eyes misting up with a red tinge, he pulled out.  
  
"KK, why don’t you fuck me first, we can come back to this." he said gently, nuzzling Karkat's neck.   
  
"Yeah...." Karkat agreed reluctantly at first, and then with more conviction. "Yeah, let's do that." Sollux sank backwards down his side of the sofa, pulling Karkat after him, wrapping his long thin legs encouragingly around Karkat's waist as the other felt for his nook, eagerly slicked with yellow. Sollux gave a long, low moan of pleasure as Karkat filled him.   
  
The sofa creaked terribly but they were too engulfed in their rapture with each other to notice much now. Unfortunately it perfectly masked the sound of the electronic door lock sliding open as someone entered the room.  
  
Karkat's mouth dropped open with sheer horror as he locked eyes with Eridan. Sollux's eyes were squeezed tightly shut as he gasped loudly, yellow genetic material arching from his bulges as his nook contracted around Karkat's thrusting length, but Karkat abruptly stopped moving just as he was at the very height of his orgasm.   
  
"KK, don’t stop..". He panted, groping for and lightly stroking his sensitive bulges to prolong the pleasure.  
  
"Actually no, I think you should stop Kar."  
  
Sollux's eyes flew open with absolute terror. Eridan stood in the doorway was the last thing he expected, or wanted to see. It wasn’t exactly as though he had planned any of this but still, thinking that Eridan was busy far away on the other side of the ship had given him the reassurance to let the spontaneous lovemaking play out.   
  
"E... Eridan..." he stuttered as the classic line 'this isn’t what it looks like' sprung annoyingly into his head. But basically... Yeah, it was exactly what it looked like. "Eridan, I'm sorry" he finished lamely. Karkat backed away slowly, his bulge slipping out of Sollux and tracking a trail of mixed yellow and red slime across the sofa fabric with it.  
  
Eridan looked bizarrely calm for a moment, just stood there looking at them in their tangle of limbs and hastily half-shed clothes, still panting a little, splashes of colour smeared across their pale grey skin. Then his hand moved towards his pocket. Sollux closed his eyes and tensed mere seconds before the agonising electrical pain ripped through his nerves, and paralysed, he toppled ungracefully off the sofa and onto the floor with a thud, still spasming helplessly as the tazering continued.  
  
"Eridan, stop that!" Karkat cried out with alarm. "Fuck... what are you doing to him?"  
  
Alerted to the noise of a commotion, a guard appeared beside Eridan.   
  
"Is there a problem?" He growled gruffly on surveying the scene.  
  
"Return that shit blooded freak to his cell.  I'll take care of the other one" he ground out darkly, from between clenched teeth  
  
"No... Sollux!" Karkat cried out, reaching down to clutch at his twitching arm, but the hulking adult guard easily grabbed him by the back of his shirt and hoisted him into the air, his pants hanging snagged on one ankle fully exposing his naked lower half.   
  
"Sollux... Eridan, wait... Fuck... SOLLUUUUUUX?". He struggled but was carried quickly away.  
  
By the time Eridan approached slowly and shut off the tazer, Sollux was rendered completely incapacitated, barely conscious and still trembling violently, his nerves and reflexes overloaded by the strong electric charge. Yellow blood tracked down his chin from where he had probably bitten his tongue. Eridan gathered up his sticky, half naked body in his arms, and swept out in a dangerously preoccupied silence.


	7. Penitence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for more violent non-con sex/ rape scenes

  
  
The dim, dull ceiling panels swam gradually into focus as Sollux blinked his eyes groggily. He was lying flat on his back, and his body ached. Nothing like the time he was in the recovery suite or anything, but still pretty stiff and uncomfortable. He shifted to rub at his face with his right hand, but he couldn’t lift it. Trying to shift his left arm yielded the same result. Turning his head apprehensively to the side, he could see his wrist bound firmly to the corner of the bed frame. Maybe he could at least sit up. Digging his heels into the mattress and pushing to shift himself backward also failed, when he felt the bonds on his ankles draw tight. Sighing, he let himself collapse limply back against the sheets.  
  
"Sollux" a quiet, choked voice spoke his name.  
  
"Eridan?" Sollux questioned shallowly.  He sensed movement in the dimness, and then he saw Eridan approach slowly. When he was close enough, Sollux could see how pale he was, his bloodshot eyes and purple streaked cheeks  standing out so strikingly in the low light.  
  
"ED... Eridan, I'm sorry. Shit, I really am, I don’t know what happened, it wasn’t planned or anything, we just..."  
  
Sollux hissed as Eridan pushed unkind, probing fingers deeply into his nook, swiping at his slick inner walls and presenting his coated digits close to Sollux's face. His yellow traced through with the undeniable vivid red of Karkat's secretions. Eridan spoke one word in a flat, deadened tone.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"It just happened... He's so miserable and lonely Eridan, and he’s my closest friend and a good guy... and I cant help being... flushed for him." Lying wouldn’t help, so Sollux simply told the truth.  
  
"You're mine Sollux, you belong to me." Eridan spoke hollowly, "I only ever expect to see purple when I do this. Not shitty MUTANT RED!"  
  
"Eridan, listen to me..."  
  
"You're MY Matesprit Sollux" Eridan's voice was rising with his increasing anger. "You can't have more than one partner in a quadrant. You can only love me like that."  
  
Sollux's ailing patience gave way explosively.  
  
"Eridan you KNOW I don't love you. You've just deluded yourself into believing that we have this perfect Matespritship but I’m just trying to be GRATEFUL to you for looking out for me as a FRIEND, nothing more. You've brought this pain on yourself, I've never lead you on but you don’t ever TAKE A FUCKING HINT!" he snarled.  
  
Fresh purple tracks began to stream down Eridan's face.  
  
"Fuck you Sol" he hitched "You have no idea how much this hurts, you've never been rejected in your whole life. I get nothing BUT rejection and disappointment and heartache. You took Fef from me for a start Sol, I fuckin loved her. We were practically fated to be together until you came along and screwed it up!"  
  
"Yeah sure, lets dredge up the past again while we're at it" Sollux argued back. "Feferi made her own decisions Eridan, you were just looking for anyone to blame other than her. I didn’t fucking seduce her or whatever shit you've made yourself believe. Did you ever think that maybe it was you that pushed her away from your Moirailegance? You're demanding, and hard work, and too controlling!"  
  
"She liked me, there was somethin there and we could a made it work" Eridan sobbed.  
  
"Yeah, sure, and just look at how things turned out! Even if you had gotten her instead of me we'd still have ended up in this hopeless position, the same stupid fucking outcome! The Condesce wouldn’t have spared her life no matter how hard you begged and fucking pleaded, it was still her destiny as heiress to seize power or be destroyed! And Fef... She just wasn’t that way inclined... She was too innocent, too gentle, not interested in power or status... If she was like that she wouldn’t have given a lowblood like me a second glance."  
  
Long seconds passed as they glared at each other, Sollux panting and Eridan sniffling the only sounds in the tense silence.  
  
"Your destiny is to become a fuckin slave wired to a ship, that doesn’t make me want to loosen my grip on you and lose you sooner because of stupid fuckin inevitability."  
  
"Eridan, I appreciate what you've done for me and I know why you're doing it, but both sides have to want to be in a quadrant for it to truly work. I’m feeling the strain of having to play along with your illusion. Just... let me out of this weird arrangement ED. Let me go."  
  
"Never" Eridan growled.  
  
"Let me go!" Sollux shouted back.  
  
Eridan turned sharply. He shrugged off his jacket and still holding it, reached into an inside pocket. Sollux froze as he expected to see the familiar shape of the little silver tazer control, but it was something larger, and black. He reached over abruptly and grabbed a handful of Sollux's hair, yanking his head back and stuffing something hard and round into his mouth in the few moments of confusion he had it open. When he realised it was a gag he thrashed his head back and forth, trying to hinder Eridan's efforts to secure the strap,  but the sea troll still managed it. He snorted mutely as Eridan released his head, stepping back and beginning to unbutton his dress shirt.  
  
 _Oh fuck no Eridan, don’t... Not again._  
  
He slid out of his boots and suit trousers, massaging the purple tinged length of his bulge as it stiffened.  
  
 _You completely get off on this don’t you? You would make some sick fuck somewhere a perfect Kismesis._  
  
"Are you going to object any further to my flushed advances Sol?" Sollux shot him the dirtiest look he could muster. "Good, it seems not."  
  
He climbed onto the bed and positioned himself between Sollux's spread legs. Sollux pulled at his bonds, writhed and made angry, choked sounds behind the invasive rubber ball fixed tightly at the back of his mouth.  
  
"I didn’t understand that Sol, you need to speak up" Eridan sneered softly, as he slid himself inside Sollux's familiar, tight heat. "Are you asking me to forgive you for screwing around with Kar? And after I actually gave you your space, because I thought you were still delicate, but you were getting your fun elsewhere. You rejected me... For him?"  
  
Sollux tried to twist away, but Eridan followed his movement, stayed inside, pinned him down tighter.  
  
"Well I don’t forgive you. And what’s more, I’ll make sure you don’t reject me again." he muttered, grinding slowly and poignantly against him. "What the hell else do you want out of your existence here Sol? You know how you're going to end up, I’m tying to give you everything I can to make you happy. What more do you want out of me? Why wont you accept me?"  
  
 _I don’t love you ED... Why cant you grasp this fact..._  
  
Eridan panted with effort and scowled with concentration. Like the first time he'd pulled this stunt he at least didn’t look like he was overly aroused by his actions, he wasn’t quite that psychotic, he just didn’t know how to deal with his feelings and didn’t know how to interact appropriately with people when he was hurt.  
  
His eyes slipped shut, shedding purple tinged tears that spotted coldly onto Sollux's chest, and Sollux could feel his bulge twitching inside as he pailed. The highblood had remarked his territory. Order was obviously re-established.  
  
"Sol, you're coming back to my quarters and I wont tolerate any resistance."  
  
 _Like hell that’s happening. I wont leave KK..._  
  
"Now... Just come quietly and don’t give me anymore shit" Eridan warned him in a low, subdued tone as he unfastened the gag. Sollux spat it out violently, then allowed a crazed grin to spread across his strained features.  
  
"FUCK YOU ERIDAN… JUST... FUCK YOU!" Sollux screamed with hysterical laughter, until  a familiar shock of electricity laid him out cold.  
  
________

  
  
The next time he woke up, it was silent. Also dark. And cold. When he moved experimentally, he found no obvious indication of restraint. His  fingers travelled automatically to his neck, but the cold band of metal was there as always. The cell was very similar to the one he had first been interred in, back in a time of relative innocence really, before he knew what impending doom and true suffering really was. He pulled himself shakily upright, squinting into the dimness, then stood. Tried to stand.  
  
His legs gave way and he fell awkwardly down onto the hard floor. There was a horrific warm, wet splash of liquid down between his legs, flowing out of him and spattering the cell floor with purple spots. Oh yeah... Eridan. He must be really fucking annoyed now, if he was upset enough to send him back to the cellblock.  
  
No Karkat anymore, and no Eridan either now...  
  
Sollux sank down in the corner of the cell with his cheek pressed against the cold wall, and finally felt the hot gush of tears stream down his face. He hadn't cried once since he had been captured, but now... He had almost nothing left inside him to hold the wretchedness back. He hitched and sobbed and coughed as the misery poured out of him in free flowing, pale yellow rivers. His body trembled against the hard surface, exhausted beyond the ability to hold himself upright anymore.  
  
 _Sollux..._  
  
Voices in his head... He had been free of them for months, why was he hearing them now... But it was not enough of a distraction to curb his crying.  
  
 _"Sollux?"_  
  
Sollux forced himself to hold his breath, catch his tears, straining to hear the voice. Was it in his head or coming from somewhere else... Where...  
  
"Sollux?"  
  
"Karkat?" he croaked in response.  
  
"Sollux, I'm right here".  
  
Swiping at his bleary eyes, he peered around the darkness of the cell. Troll eyesight was accustomed to low light levels but he still couldn’t see anyone else in the room with him.  
  
"Where... KK..."  
  
"Look down, idiot."  
  
Sollux dropped his gaze down to the floor beside him, finally noticing the low level ventilation grate.  
  
"KK..." He bent lower to the metal grille.  
  
"What are you doing in there Sol? Did Eridan put you there?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Shit. He's really fucking upset isn’t he?"  
  
"That’s an understatement and then some". Sollux wiped his running nose against his arm.  
  
"Sollux, I’m so sorry. I’ve ruined everything for you." the voice was quieter at these words.  
  
"Fuck that noise KK, it was as much my fault as yours. Probably more mine." Sollux shifted, and felt more of Eridan's sludge slide down between his thighs. "He'll be back in like, a day. I give it a day, he’s so fucking needy, I wont get much of a break from him."  
  
"Sollux, just go back with him, the first opportunity you get. You don’t want to be down here, trust me on this".  
  
"I don’t think I even care anymore." Sollux said dully, his eyes wandering round the cell looking for some clothes or at least a blanket to pull round his naked, shivering frame.  
  
"Sollux please, I don’t approve of Eridan's misguided conduct in the slightest but he's a far better alternative than what might happen to you in here."  
  
"Being beaten and bullied... Pffft." Sollux tried to sound disinterested.  
  
"And the rest Sollux. What about when you wake up without any horns? What about... What about being forced into... anything… sexual?"  
  
Sollux's eyes widened. He remembered distantly what Eridan has first told him when he rescued him from the cells when he was captured, that he could choose to stay there and risk abuse. And also... he'd mentioned... that Karkat had already been targeted, but he wasn’t specific about how he was being abused. Karkat himself hadn’t mentioned it... But when they had been in the rec room together, he'd been hesitant, and in pain...  
  
"Fucking hell KK, why didn’t you tell me you'd been messed around with before I tried to have sex with you, now I feel like an insensitive jerk."  
  
"Yeah, like its the easiest thing to admit to." Karkat growled testily.  
  
"Karkat... It’s not like its your fault or anything, I could have helped!"  
  
"You cant do anything to help... I just wanted you to make me forget." Karkat said distantly. "I wanted so much to forget how it feels when they put their hands all over me, when they hold me down and fuck me until I cant walk, when they make me scream and bleed and cover me in their disgusting blue slime and stand around laughing and jeering. Like just one time with you... Could erase all of that."  
  
"KK..." Sollux sobbed, aching to be able to reach out to the one who he would make his Matesprit if they were anywhere else, and preferably thousands of miles away from this shitty spaceship.  
  
______

  
Hours, and then days went by. If Eridan had, even at the very least, been by to check on Sollux he was completely unaware of it. He mostly sat shivering in bed, or hunched by the ventilation grille. Sometimes he spoke to Karkat, but mostly they just sat together in silence, separated by the cell wall, just trying to draw comfort from being near each other. He already felt listless and was dropping weight from the dire prison block food ration.  
  
Then one evening, there was a new presence in his cell at patrol time.  
  
The guard was huge, and dressed in a pretty grandiose variation of the crew uniform, trimmed in deep blue, with a large silver crest on the right side of his chest. Sollux couldn’t recall ever seeing such a troll in this block before, he had to be from another area of duty on the ship  
  
"Well... Hello there... Sollux is it?" Sollux couldn’t help but cower just a little lower to the floor, closer to the grille as the terrifying adult clumped forward into the tiny cell, dropping down to one knee right in front of Sollux to get a better look at him in the darkness. He grabbed Sollux's right arm by the wrist and drew it up, forcing Sollux out of his curled up crouch.  
  
"You're the mutant's cute little friend aren’t you, the one he gets visits with?" the blueblood ran his tongue over Sollux’s thin, trembling fingers before nipping them hard and scrutinising the liquid welling up in the puncture holes. "Yellowblood eh? Don’t see very many of your kind here, in fact, I only know of one other currently. You got the same kinda look as him too. Not much more fortunate than him though" his laugh was a deep rumble.  
  
Sollux was struck completely mute. This had to be the one Karkat was routinely abused by, and he was... huge. There was just nothing, nothing he could think to say...  
  
"Why don’t you take your clothes off, let me get a good look at you."  
  
 _Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck_  
  
"I'd really... rather not." he said in an embarrassingly small voice.  
  
"I could do it for you then". He started to shift forward, so Sollux hastily began tugging off his tee-shirt. The guard watched as he dropped his pants, stepped out of his shoes, until he stood in only the collar. Hating himself, his eyes flickered desperately to the door, praying for someone to interrupt this. Even Eridan if it came down to it.  
  
"Come on then cutie, time for you to give me a taste..."  
  
Sollux choked as his collar pulled tight against his throat, the guard having grabbed him by it, and he was dragged spluttering across the cell to the bed and pushed face down onto it. Rough fingers probed between his legs, feeling for his entrance as he squirmed, trying desperately to think of something he could say to save himself.  
  
"Hey, you cant do this." he  grasped at straws. "I’m only in here for pilot testing... Powering the ship... I belong to the Condesce."  
  
"No... I’ve not heard anything to that effect. And if that were the case you wouldn’t be in a general holding facility. This whole block is full of you fucking Alternian wigglers, what makes you any different?"  
  
"My Matesprit" Sollux spat out, disgusted at his desperation. "Is a violetblood. He wont stand for this."  
  
"That’s hoofbeast shit for two reasons. Firstly, why would you be in a cell if you were a highblood's Matesprit? Also... Highbloods don’t take Matesprits from amongst your kind." He ended with a sneer on the last two words.  
  
"We had an argument, I'm here as punishment. Oh fuck..."  
  
Sollux didn’t even need to crane his head that far back to see the thick, heavily veined bulge that the guard had eased out the front of his suit pants, and was stroking expectantly while he held Sollux ready with his other hand.  
  
"Any other rubbish you want to feed me, lowblood?"  
  
Sollux fell silent. The guard tutted under his breath, and gripped Sollux's buttocks, spreading his nether regions open, sliding his leaking bulge between his legs and slicking him with blue mucus. Just the head of his monstrous appendage was enough to make Sollux scream as it split the walls of his nook apart.  
  
"Hmm... That’s tight. So fucking good, where have you been hiding all my life?" he moaned lustily against Sollux's neck as he pressed in deeper, crushing Sollux's skinny frame to the hard mattress as he bore down on him. Sollux's nails raked across the sheets, pulling as though he could make a difference to the steamrollering the guard was giving him. As the advance continued it wasn’t just the stretching at his entrance that hurt now, the length was pushing painfully at the end of the passage inside him. The guy was gonna be bulge deep in his fucking internal organs before long.  
  
The collar pulled tight against his neck as the guard backed out a little, then sheathed himself in deep again as Sollux fought to breathe, his cheeks flushing yellow, his body jerking in terrified agony as the assault began for real. The rhythmic thrusting soon gathered speed into a vicious pounding. The collar was at least released as the blueblood leant in over him, bracing his body over Sollux's, one of his great hands gripping the mattress, the other pinning down one of Sollux's outstretched arms, as he moaned, trying to force in every available inch of flesh as he pailed explosively.  
  
Sollux screamed sickly when his thin wrist gave way with a dull crunch as the huge blueblood put too much of his weight on it. The flaring, cramping pain it sent shooting up his arm even momentarily blocked out the agony of the girthy bulge tearing him apart, the horror of the plentiful genetic material overflowing his small body and gushing down his legs. As the guard pulled out, Sollux convulsively threw up.  
  
"See you again some time maybe" he grinned casually, gathering up the corner of the bed sheet and cleaning himself off, before straightening his uniform and letting himself out as Sollux curled in on himself, clutching his burning arm to his chest, and cried unashamedly.  
  
______  
  
His condition went unnoticed for several miserable hours. The oliveblood bringing in his meal was the one to find him, pale, filthy and shivering in a semiconscious stupor in the wreckage of his bed sheets. In next to no time he was being stretchered out of the cell and back to the familiar corridor of the medical floor.  
  
The same jadeblood that had nursed him before admitted him. She checked his vitals, wiped his feverish face with a cold cloth. It was immediately obvious that his wrist was badly broken... Misaligned into an awkward angle and already swollen and hot to the touch. It would need to be x-rayed before they could decide the best way to repair it. The rest of his body seemed intact, or at least as intact as she dared to inspect once she uncovered the deep blue staining painting the skin of his lower half. This was taboo territory... A greenblood knew better than to question the actions of the noble classes. She simply injected him with enough painkillers and anti-inflammitories to make him more comfortable, drew the blanket up to his chin, and sent a call message out to his Matesprit.


	8. Fate

 

"Sol... Sol are you awake? Sol please say somethin."  
  
Sollux's eyes flickered open groggily, and immediately he found himself squinting at the harshness of the light in the room. He quickly realised that he couldn’t be in the cell anymore. And that voice... That annoying high pitched wavery tone.   
  
Eridan was right beside him where he lay.  
  
"Fuck." Sollux rasped in a small, dry voice. "What are you... doing here?"  
  
"What the fuck do you THINK I'm doing here. You're injured, and I want to know how it happened!" Eridan said with concerned irritation.  
  
Sollux remembered what had happened without any difficulty at all. He craned his neck to get a better look at his dully throbbing arm. It was bound and splinted securely at the wrist, ensuring that it was supported against being knocked and further aggravating the injury.   
  
"Sol, who did this? Which one a them did this to you?"  
  
"What does... it even... matter..." Sollux slurred. "Why don’t you just put me back down there.. Leave me to it..."  
  
"Sollux, I will make you tell me". Eridan threatened, but the tears welling up in his eyes belied his true feelings. He was putting a very tough face on his devastation. He had only meant to teach Sollux a lesson by leaving him confined to a cell for a couple of weeks, until he was ready to beg forgiveness, and then Eridan would have him permanently installed in his proper apartment whether he objected to it or not. Even if he had to chain or cage him while he was out to stop him wrecking the place in frustration. And he certainly wouldn’t be seeing Karkat again for some time.   
  
"Sollux, tell me. I’ve seen the x-rays, that wrist is so badly broken its going to have to be operated on, literally pinned back together. And then there's... well I've been told you're also badly torn... and you know exactly what I'm referring to so don’t even think of denyin it. I want a name, or a description if you don’t know that."  
  
"What are you... gonna do..."  
  
"Report the fucker, what else! I’ll make whoever did this accountable! This is the most... unacceptable insult to a highblood, and I’ll make sure they pay."  
  
Sollux chuckled humourlessly. "He didn’t seem all that worried about inciting the wrath of a violet blood at the time..."  
  
"So you warned him, and he didn’t listen?"  
  
"Didn’t believe me... Didn’t believe the lowblood trash trying to save his miserable skin by spouting lies." Sollux closed his eyes and exhaled shallowly.  
  
"Sol" Eridan squeezed his shoulder firmly. "Who did this. I will not leave this bedside until I know, and you have my word on that".  
  
God he was hard headed.  
  
"I'm fairly sure it was... The head guard from Maximum. Kar... Karkat's been targeted by him too... And maybe others, I don’t know for sure. A blueblood with... a silver crest on his uniform."  
  
"That guy..." Eridan bristled. "I’m goin straight to the Condesce herself in that case, he'll block any complaints I file against him through other channels. He bribes or intimidates those around him to cover up shit like this... But he's gone wrong this time"  
  
"Eridan have you even seen... the size of that guy... He'd flatten you if you picked a fight with him..." Sollux had to admire his bravado, but it still sounded like suicide talk.  
  
"He wouldn’t dare raise a hand against a highblood, the class order on this ship is absolute."  
  
"Well... Its your funeral..."   
  
"You just behave yourself, you're scheduled for surgery shortly. I'm going to get this personal insult dealt with this very moment." Eridan was on his feet, scowling. Even his fins were laid back in anger. Sollux couldn’t help being mildly amused despite himself.   
  
________  
  
The guard wasn’t demoted in any way, he was obviously good at the tasks he was supposed to do, but his access to the low security block was revoked. The other trolls down there, and most importantly Karkat, were safer for Sollux's misfortune. It was somewhat comforting to Sollux as he sat on the edge of the bed he was chained to. Eridan's bed. In Eridan's quarters.  
  
 _If it’s made an improvement to your life KK... then... it was worth the misfortune…_ He thought as he rubbed his sore, bandaged wrist vacantly. It was a lot better and mending well, but it still ached at times.  
  
He spread his legs obediently, thinking about Karkat and how he was coping now, as Eridan climbed on top of him, pressing him down into the deep purple bedspread and sliding his bulge inside. The highblood wasn’t even really speaking to him properly still, but he wasn’t about to let Sollux get away with not fulfilling his concupiscent duties. He panted and thrust urgently.  
  
"Sollux, hold me..." he ordered tonelessly.  
  
Sollux raised his arms with a rattle of chainlinks and wrapped them around Eridan's neck, without so much as a change in his expression, despite the fact that Eridan's pumping away at his insides was beginning to mildly aggravate old wounds. He never told Eridan how it hurt him. Eridan would most likely petulantly remind him that it was karma for cheating on him with Karkat. He concentrated harder on feeling as dead on the inside as he appeared on the outside.  
  
______  
  
He accepted the news that he was to be taken in for the next stage of pilot testing with no reaction. Eridan was as agitated as he had been made by the first test announcement, but Sollux was somehow just... relieved... for the change of scene. Weeks of lonely, pampered  confinement in Eridan's plush quarters. Their tense, strained interactions during the hours Eridan was around. The fear of further unknown test methods hardly touched the numbness that had set in deep in his heart.  
  
________  
  
The room they entered was fairly small, seemingly even smaller with three medics, a guard, Eridan and Sollux himself cramming themselves in there. But it was also nearly completely bare, save a pillar of some sort just towards the back of the dim space, and behind that, something that looked like a tangle of deep purpley-pink tubing.   
  
He had been dressed before the journey to the odd little room. The thin band of the visor only slightly dimmed his vision and left him wondering what it had been fitted to him for. Damn thing was pretty secure though, hooked right around his ears, and an elasticated band round the back of his head keeping it in place. The paper thin medical gown, under which he was naked, left him feeling horribly exposed. The greenbloods lead him forward and secured him to the tall, pillar like frame that ran from floor to ceiling, raising his arms up and shackling them in strong, padded cuffs, same for his ankles, and passing only a single wide fabric strap around his middle, slipping it under his gown through its open sides. He heard the electronic door lock click open as another presence entered and joined them in the room, but when he raised his head to peer past the trolls restraining him, it was a most unexpected visitor.  
  
Sollux's eyes went wide. It was the Condesce herself.  
  
She lived up to her reputation, in the flesh she was nothing short of terrifying. Tall and curvaceous, with the longest pair of horns he had ever seen on a troll the crowning adornment on a wild, long cascade of glossy black hair that came all the way down to the heels of her shoes. A fitted black catsuit of an outfit, trimmed in tyrian. Earrings, bangles, bracelets, pendants... She practically dripped with shining gold adornments from every part of her body, signalling her royal status proudly.  Her intimidatingly beautiful face wore a twisted smile of amusement and playful, malicious cruelty  danced through her bright fushia eyes  
  
"Your Majesty" The other trolls in the room bowed low to her as she approached, Eridan included, but Sollux was too struck dumb to react, aside the fact that he was fully restrained. He just watched her approach with his mouth open. She stopped directly in front of him, and laid her graceful, long fingered hand coldly against his cheek.   
  
"Its your big day today, little one. Make your bloodline proud." she said in a voice that was undeniably feminine but had a tone that exuded absolute authority. And then unexpectedly, she leaned in and kissed him gently on the forehead. Then she moved sideways and past him, to the area behind the frame that was filled with the weird tangle of tubing. Unseen by Sollux, she closed her eyes and pressed her hands to the nearest thick root, and almost immediately the whole tangle began to writhe to life.   
  
Sollux jerked hard in his bindings at the first cold tendrils to creep around his limbs from behind. It felt absolutely hideous in its strangeness. They crept around his limbs and then his torso carefully, touching exploritively, as though piecing together an imprint of his body... size, weight, anatomy. The first root to suddenly and unexpectedly press a sharp point into the delicate flesh of his inner arm and slide under his skin made him cry out loudly. The Condesce reached across, pressed her hand against his face reassuringly as he squirmed at the sickening sensation.   
  
"Shhhhh... Don’t fight it sweetie." She soothed. The tentacles moved around under the gown, caressing his chest and remaining there, resting against his hammering heart. Sliding up and around his neck, stroking his hair. Moving between his spread thighs in the most unnerving manner and coiling around his legs.   
  
"What... what is it doing..." Eridan spoke in a tiny voice.  
  
"Bio-feedback... It will sense his body's needs and resolve them without the need for much intervention from us, leaving him completely focused on maintaining ship power and navigation, which it will also facilitate. They will operate almost as one. Isn’t it impressive?" the Condesce smiled.  
  
Sollux closed his eyes and tried not to let any incriminating sound past his lips as one tentacle finally touched on his nook, and maybe drawn by the heat or driven by its own programming, slid gently inside. Was this really necessary with an audience watching raptly? A second soon slid in to join it, almost coiling around the first inside him, and he felt his cheeks flush hotly as the internal pulsing and twisting somehow drove his twinned bulges out of his body in arousal. Other tendrils that noticed  this happening wrapped around their bases, trapping them in their engorged state, and then unexpectedly, much smaller thinner roots slipped into the openings at their tips and pushed down inside. Sollux's mouth hung open, mortified, but when the smaller tubes stopped advancing, the ones wrapped around the bases and twisted up in side him slackened off and withdrew. The ones from his nook dragged out a warm wet trail of his own lubrication and pasted it down his inner thighs, and then one snaked back up between his fearfully clenched buttocks.  
  
Of course the Condesce scrutinised him with gleeful amusement.  
  
Sollux shivered wretchedly at the discomfort of the sticky tendril slipping up into his back passage, its questing tip creating a hideously tickling sensation wherever it brushed the inside of his waste chute. As he tensed, he felt a number of the vines covering him tighten as well in response, as though expectant of an attempt by him to struggle loose, like it was already reading his intentions through the subtle subconscious responses of his body to certain stimulus. The tapered, slick appendage then slid free, only to be replaced by another slightly thicker one pushing its way inside.   
  
All this was happening while one of the medics was busy pressing sensor pads to his temples, and the back of his neck, and sliding one under his gown to adhere to his chest just beside the tentacles pressed to the loud beat of his heart. They were connected to a portable display device, and Sollux guessed that they still wanted to quantify his responses to the testing. Other wires were being plugged into small sockets at the sides of the visor headgear.  
  
There was a small click near his neck, and distracted by the gripping, shifting coils invading and embracing him he barely registered the importance of the tiny sound. But as he felt the solid weight of the hated collar leave his neck, his eyes widened. The collar was off. He concentrated, and allowed himself to feel the faintest flicker of his psiionic power run through his body. It felt light and free, not heavy and unresponsive to his will as it had been under the control of the collar. He scanned the room, trying to stay calm... To stay cool as he calculated the odds of launching a successful attack against the trolls in the room. But even if he did manage to take them down, could he get very far through the ship? Could he get free of these weird living restraints? Could he even make it to a light craft or escape pod that he could pilot in a successful escape attempt? So much uncertainty that he felt paralysed by it and unable to make a move.  
  
In his excitement, he had even forgotten the presence of the Condesce in the room, stood just to his side, until her long fingers grazed his face, trailed down his neck... and then unexpectedly tightened around his throat. He jerked against the restraints and then tensed, quickly gathering and then forcing out a powerful psiionic charge from his whole body in the wild hope of vaporising the restraints and knocking beck the watching trolls long enough for him to run.  
  
It took a few moments for the horror of his failure to sink in. The Condesce continued to hold his neck, watch him colour and struggle for breath and try to defend himself with his psiionics. His eyes darted to the side. The other trolls didn’t seem the least bit put out by anything, one was watching the small monitor and taking readings from the zigzagging lines and flickering numbers. Why was nothing happening... The collar was off...  
  
"You seen confused, little one" the Condesce smiled at him, but it wasn’t a nice smile.  
"You are using your powers... and yet nothing seems to happening..."   
  
"Wh... what happened." he gasped as she loosened her grip.  
  
"That energy, created by you, was immediately absorbed. Charging the power cells of my beautiful ship for now, but soon... When you are bigger and stronger... I want to have you on a fleet ship of your own." She fixed him with an intensely affectionate, unnervingly possessive gaze. "How dearly I would like you to pilot my own ship, much as I adore him..."  
  
Eridan watched on, looking pained.  
  
"Do it again  for me, Sollux." she encouraged.  
  
He was loath to follow her orders... but what other choice did he have? He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and forced out the most powerful shockwave of energy from his body that he could muster. The tentacles pulsed around him, capturing and absorbing his efforts.  
  
"And an optic blast... Can you manage that?"  
  
The visor made sense now, it was obviously strong enough to withstand his other faithful psychic attack and contain the energy it released.  
  
"I’ve not had control of my powers for... months... I'm tired now... please". It was a slight lie, he could have pushed a little more. But he mostly wanted out of the wrap of roots surrounding him so claustrophobically.   
  
Her smile almost seemed merciful.  
  
"Very well. You can rest." She nodded to the other trolls, who switched off their equipment, and started to collect up the sensor pads. "We can continue this tomorrow."  
  
Only Eridan stood still in the same spot as the adults began to file out around him. Sollux's gaze locked onto his as they realised simultaneously that he wasn't to be released and returned to Eridan's quarters. He was going to be left, in this small room, trapped and invaded by the pulsing, shifting tendrils of this awful... organism... THING! His heart clenched with fear.  
  
"Is it safe to leave him there like that... Alone?" Eridan was the one to give voice to his thoughts.   
  
"He'll be fine." The Condesce took hold of his shoulder and guided him firmly out as she swept past.  
__________

  
His reaction was automatic as soon as the door clicked shut with the electronic snap of the lock. Sheer, mindless, survival instinct panic. He threw his pathetic thin frame against the restraints and thrashed, only making them draw tighter and further increasing his alarm. Despite his semi truthful admission of fatigue, he fired his psiionics again and again, crying out in wordless, animalistic snarls of fear and frustration. It was some time before he finally slumped in a dead faint, panting and aching, defeated.  
  
_________  
  
 _You. You're here_  
  
 _I know you_

  
  
Who... Who are you?

  
  
_Relax. I will tell you. I will try to help you_   
  
_Don’t be afraid_

  
  
Where are you. Are you... communicating with me... in my mind?

  
  
_Yes. I am elsewhere in the ship_   
  
_I am imprisoned too. It is unlikely we will ever meet_   
  
_But I know you_   
  
_Sollux Captor_

  
  
How do you know my name?

  
  
_I am a powerful psychic like yourself. I can read your thoughts. Magnified now as they are through your connection to the ship_

  
  
Connection to the ship? Psychic?  
  
Are you... The Helmsman?

  
  
_Yes_   
  
_You are strong Sollux. I am proud of you. Strong and handsome_

  
  
How do you know what I look like?

  
  
_I can see you. How you look, through your own memory_

  
  
Why cant I see you?

  
  
_I have been here for many many years. Piloting the ship only. I cannot remember what I look like as I have not seen myself in this time. So I cannot show you this_   
  
_But when I look at you, I know you. I believe I may have looked a lot like you... Once_   
  
_I don’t want you to suffer this fate Sollux. I don’t want our bloodline to end here_

  
  
Our bloodline? Yellowblood?

  
  
_Yes. And more. We may have more in common than you know_

  
  
I don’t think I understand. Could you be a little less cryptic?

  
  
_You will know soon. The less you know now, the safer you will be. I need to think about this some more_   
  
_Have patience_   
  
_I will try to help you Sollux_

  
  
________

  
  
When he came to later, his overriding thoughts were that his conversion with the Helmsman of the ship was little more than a dream, brought on by the stress of the events beforehand. But he also felt a deep rooted need to believe that it was real, had happened, and could give him some sort of hope to cling to in the face of overwhelming uncertainty.

  
_______  
  
  
  



End file.
